
LiBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

"PilW^^i ■ 1^^ 

Cliap.. ...„._. Copyright No. 

Shell 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



All's Right with the World 



BY 



CHARLES B. NEWCOMB 



The year's at the Spring, 
And day's at the morn; 
Morning's at seven; 
The hillside's dew-pearled; 
The lark's on the wing; 
The snail's on the thorn ; 
God's in his heaven — 
All's right with the world. 

— Robert Browning 

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
But in ourselves, that we are underlings. 

— Shakespeare 



^ 



BOSTON 
THE PHILOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING 
19 Blagden Street, Copley S' 
1897 ! 

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il2S 



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Copyright 

1897 
Charles B. Newcomi 



375- 5" (^3 



F. H. GILSON COMPANY 

PRINTEBS AND BOOKBINDERS 

BOSTON. U.S.A. 



DEDICATION, 



To my gentle comrade of many wanderings 
among the fields and forests, the lowlands and 
the uplands of thought-life, I lovingly dedicate 
this volume. 



PREFACE. 



In passing over a mountain trail one's point of observation 
is often changed. Sometimes the traveler finds himself 
upon the edge of a precipice, looking down into dark and 
narrow valleys. Sometimes he climbs the heights and looks 
abroad over a superb and varied panorama of grand peaks and 
broad horizons. In our experiences of life we find that every- 
thing related to our happiness depends upon our point of view. 
We may lift up our eyes unto the hills even when walking in 
the valley of the shadow. We have wings ; like the dove 
we can fly away and be at rest. We can dwell in the con- 
fines of personal suffering, or gain the higher table-lands from 
which we can see the glory that excelleth in the universal 
life spread out before us. 

The world is wearied with complaints of "hard times," 
"financial depression," and "social discontent." We are 
always looking to the future for remedies that never come. 
Let us open our eyes awhile to the possibilities of the present, 
and lay aside the smoked glasses of prejudice and ignorance 
through which we have looked at life. Let us identify God 
and man as inseparably united, — learn to unfold our latent 
powers and study the higher gospel of true worldliness. We 
will perceive that the Banquet of Life is always spread. 
Nature herself goes out into the highways and hedges to 
compel us to come in. None is really shut out from the 
feast except the self-exiled. All cause of suffering is in the 
individual himself. Life in very truth is opulence and equity. 

Charles B. Newcomb. 
Boston^ Nov. i, i8gy. 



" The Bacon, the Spinoza, the Hume, Schelling, Kant, or 
whosoever propounds to you a philosophy of the mind is 
only a more or less awkward translator of things in your con- 
sciousness which you have also your way of seeing, perhaps 
of denominating. Say, then, instead of too timidly poring 
into his obscure sense, that he has not succeeded in render- 
ing back to you your consciousness. He has not succeeded, 
now let another try. If Plato cannot, perhaps Spinoza will. 
If Spinoza cannot, then perhaps Kant. Anyhow, when at 
last it is done, you will find it is no recondite but a simple, 
natural, common state which the writer restores to you." — 
Emerson'' s " Intellect.^'' 



CONTENTS. 



I. The Horizon of Natural Law .... 9 

II. From Dan to Beersheba 11 

III. Morbid Tenacity 16 

IV. Christian Transgressors 21 

V. Bric-a-Brac Bondage 24 

VI. Postponement a Delusion 30 

VII. Counterfeit Bodies 35 

VIII. A Pivotal Philosophy 43 

IX. Bitter Medicine 48 

X. Domestic Despots 52 

XI. Self-Sacrifice 55 

XII. Vicious Virtues 58 

XIII. Virtuous Vices 63 

XIV. Miserable Offenders 70 

XV. Christian Atheism 76 

XVI. Logic of Faith 82 

XVII. Hidden Treasures 86 

XVIII. Antidotes to Worry 90 

XIX. Mental Microbes 95 

XX. The Folly of Resentment loi 

XXI. Emotional Bankruptcy 104 

XXII. Food for Thought 107 

XXIII. Sympathy AS A Vice iii 

XXIV. The Selfishness of Sorrow 114 

(7) 



XXV. The Gates OF Sorrow ii8 

XXVI. The Problem of Life 122 

XXVII. Spiritual Evolution ....'... 131 

XXVIII. Spiritual Mathematics 138 

XXIX. Vibratory Affinity ....... 143 

XXX. Vibratory Forces 150 

XXXI. Thought Vibrations 158 

XXXII. The Hypnotic Power of Words . . 166 

XXXIII. Insomnia 175 

XXXIV. Pillow Thoughts 180 

XXXV. An Honest Graveyard 187 

XXXVI. Suicide: IS IT Worth While . ... 191 

XXXVII. Present Immortality -199 

XXXVIII. The Dash for Liberty 204 

XXXIX. Strong Swimmers 206 

XL. Poverty as a Disease 211 

XLI. Opulence through Growth .... 222 

XLII. Telepathy — The Circulation of 

Mind 230 

XLIII. Mental Dyspepsia 237 

XLIV. Restless Aspirations 241 

XLV. Go Forward 253 



I. 

THE HORIZON OF NATURAL LAW. 

When we have new perception we shall gladly disburthen 
the memory of its hoarded treasures as old rubbish. — Emer- 
son. 

What is '^nature's law.'*" Is it not simply the 
horizon that limits our knowledge of today.'' 

Tomorrow we will have climbed higher — we 
will have a more elevated view — we will restate 
the law. 

Yesterday we discovered gravitation. Today we 
are discovering magnetism. Yesterday the bit of 
metal fell to the ground. Today it rises to the 
magnet in obedience to an occult law of levitation 
which has apparently transcended for the moment 
that of gravitation. 

We must not be too arbitrary in our definitions. 
We need not hurry to reach conclusions. 

In the end we shall doubtless find that spirit 
governs every element and is absolutely free of 
limitation. 

This seems to be a good working hypothesis to- 
day, and we find every encouragement in its appli- 
cation. 

So let us not overvalue what we have called 
** conservatism," or cling too tenaciously to the 



lO 

conclusions of past thinkers. Every human being 
must breathe and eat for himself. We must not 
lean too much on one another in things intellectual 
or spiritual, or be afraid to move forward confi- 
dently. 

We do not hold to yesterday's breath or yester- 
day's dinner. We may safely let go, perhaps, of 
yesterday's opinions. 

Let us remember the manna in the desert. It 
was fresh every morning. He who gathered much 
had nothing over. True wealth is not mere accu- 
mulation, either mental or material. 

Men and women often work like pointer dogs. 
They make wide ranges in the fields of philosophy, 
science, and religion — then stop rigidly on some 
small game, and cannot be induced to move till it is 
''flushed." 

We are too often magnetized by petty theories. 
They are like small game on the ground. We can 
never be free till we learn that our true horizon has 
no bounds and the soul no limitations. 



II. 

FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA. 

MILESTONES IN A PSYCHIC PILGRIMAGE. 

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will 
ever bubble up if thou wilt ever dig. — Marcus Aurelius. 

In the usual reaction which follows a new and 
radical discovery of truth, the first impulse of the 
student is to distrust all that he has previously ac- 
cepted, and commit himself ardently to the school 
which claims him as a disciple. In the end he too 
often finds that he has simply changed his label or 
intrenched himself in a new position which he is 
pledged to defend. 

The truth-seeker should be a traveller, carrying 
very little baggage, trusting for his supplies to the 
resources of the country through which he jour- 
neys. If he become merely the disciple of a 
"cause " and the champion of a ''theory," he will 
inevitably find himself so engrossed with personali- 
ties that he cannot make much progress in the field 
of discovery. 

Let us trace the usual course of the "investi- 
gator" of psychic forces. 

Our pilgrim starts perhaps from the church. 
There he has been taught the theories of special 



12 

creation, human limitations, and the '* scheme of 
redemption," in which his chief responsibihty is an 
act of faith. 

He becomes interested in the discovery of spirit- 
ual forces and intelligences, which revolutionize his 
philosophy of life with all his former views of earth 
and heaven. His first step forward brings him into 
the mysteries of hypnotism. Here he receives a 
lesson in the possibilities of mind control through 
a subtle force which dominates heart and con- 
science, and like electricity sets at defiance time 
and distance, those two most important factors on 
the lower planes of life. 

From the study of hypnotism he passes quickly 
to that of spiritualism. 

He now obtains evidence of continued existence 
which science and theology have failed to reveal to 
him. He discovers at the same time that the con- 
ditions of that existence differ widely from all the 
ideas in which he has been instructed. In place 
of fixed states of happiness or misery, he learns 
that life means progress, and that every thought 
and every word and act has its legitimate and in- 
evitable consequence which is neither ''reward" 
nor "punishment," and which is itself capable 
of being changed by bringing new causes into 
operation. 

He discovers also the possibility of supplement- 
ing his human intelligence with that of better in- 
formed and sympathetic friends in the unseea 



13 

Here he encounters a real danger. In hypnotism 
he has been tempted by the power of dominating 
other minds at the sacrifice of their individual free- 
dom. In spiritualism he endangers his own liberty 
by an unreasonable submission to minds that have 
dropped their mortal bodies. He has entered the 
realm of psychism. For a personal God he has 
substituted personal Will and the inexorable ''Law." 
The belief in a personal Devil has given place to a 
fear of obsessing spirits, malicious magnetism, and 
elementaries. It is only a few days' journey be- 
yond materialism. In the prayer meetings of the 
church he has been taught to throw his responsi- 
bilities upon Jesus as a Saviour. He now ex- 
changes the prayer meeting for the seance room, 
and is in danger of throwing his responsibilities 
upon the ''spirits." He learns that Jesus was 
a "medium," and he himself, perhaps, sits for de- 
velopment as a "sensitive." 

After an experience of negative suffering, he 
seeks for higher thought in Occult Science and 
Theosophy. He discovers that the secret of spirit- 
ual power lies in the development of his own soul 
forces and in the realm of the positive. 

From the seance room he passes into the occult 
circle. The "spirits" he now exchanges for the 
"masters" who also dwell in the unseen, though 
the Himalayas do not seem so remote to him as 
the spiritual spheres. Again he learns a new al- 



14 

phabet and new shibboleths, and is taught that 
Jesus was a "Hierophant." 

Our pilgrim has travelled a long journey to dis- 
cover at last that "the kingdom of heaven is 
within." Here he finds his true spiritual centre 
and reaches the place of wells — "Beersheba." He 
has successively passed the milestones of ecclesias- 
ticism, materialism, and psychism, and arrived at 
last at the borderland of higher spiritualism. He 
has come from the colder north to the sunnier 
south of his Holy Land, to find in himself at last 
the "well of water springing up unto everlasting 
life." He has discovered the meaning of the words : 
"He that followeth me shall not walk in dark- 
ness, but shall have the Light of Life." 

Henceforth that Light is the glad star of his spir- 
itual pilgrimage. "The Star which they saw in 
the East." 



15 



A spirit of controversy is not favorable to spirit- 
ual progress. We must at least accept a propo- 
sition as a working hypothesis, assuming it to be 
true, pending its demonstration or disproval. An 
unreasonable denial is as illogical as baseless asser- 
tion. An unfriendly attitude is not possible to the 
truly scientific mind. Such is not the attitude of 
the student in chemistry working in his laboratory, 
or of the mechanic in his workshop. Starting from 
a point of indifference, without prejudice, each of 
them seeks only to discover the law which governs 
in chemistry or mechanics. In mental science a 
principle begins to demonstrate itself at the very 
moment it is recognized, for then the student has 
committed himself to its action. Recognition is 
acceptance, and the harmonies of truth inevitably 
follow. 



III. 

MORBID TENACITY. 

He in whom the love of truth predominates will keep him- 
self aloof from all moorings and afloat. — Emerson. 

Life is inspiration and expression. If we fail in 
one, we fail in both. We often close ourselves to 
fresh thought by our tenacity of the old. The at- 
tempt to harmonize the old and the new thought is 
as if a tree were to cling to its dead leaves and ex- 
pect at the same time to renew its foliage. When 
good reason is shown for doing so, we must be will- 
ing to let go favorite ideas and prejudices. As long 
as we hold on we -cannot move forward. 

We have been taught to '^hold fast that which 
is good." It is of equal importance to let go of 
whatever has served its purpose. Having gained a 
higher thought, why still cling to the lower.-* Life 
is not accumulation; it is circulation. Must exist- 
ence, therefore, necessarily include unrest and dis- 
ease, disappointment and loss .<* We fall easily into 
the habit of believing life to be chiefly discipline 
and trial. Is this the whole truth .-* Is not perfect 
peace possible here and now.-* Must work be al- 
ways anxious, and rest without repose } Must we 
continue to hasten through our occupations without 
any real enjoyment, but only a feeling of dissatisfac- 
tion because of deficiencies .-* 



We dwell too often in the negative conditions of 
life. We labor day after day, with no hope except 
the chance of attaining an indefinite goal called 
^'heaven." *' Such is life/' we say to one another, as 
we limp along with heavy hearts, dimming eyes, 
and wrinkled faces. In our ignorance we pride our- 
selves that we can say, "Thy wilLbe done." We 
imagine sorrow and trouble are sent by God, and 
we moan with one another in "sympathy." Truly, 
Emerson might say that men are "like gods play- 
ing the fool." Let our eyes be opened and this 
nightmare be dispelled. We are but in the morn- 
ing, and the long day stretches out in a glorious 
perspective. 

Heaven can never be found through death. 
Death of itself brings nothing. It is an error to 
believe that death in the mortal sense is "gain." 
Through death we will not find treasures or la- 
mented friends unless they and we, through the 
harmonies of truth, are drawn into spiritual com- 
panionship. Upon the other shore we shall find 
what we take with us. Gain comes only through 
development. 

Environment is not a fetter, though often prof- 
fered as an excuse for the poverty of our lives. 
Such thoughts act as opiates to personal dissatis- 
faction. In bondage we may be, but, if so, as will- 
ing captives — slaves to many masters who all serve 
under the one great potentate of selfishness. We 



8 



desire power, and yet are ruled by self-appointed 
taskmasters. Toiling and sweating under heavy 
burdens, dare men submit their troubles to an hon- 
est spiritual analysis and be ready to let them go ? 
This is a searching question. Self-pity is carefully 
nursed and enjoyed with morbid satisfaction. 

There was once a young man in Galilee who 
thought he desired eternal life till he was bidden 
to relinquish his accumulations. He went away 
sorrowful, for he had great possessions. This is 
the case with many who are attracted to the new 
thought of the day. They make but little pro- 
gress, and the reason is not difficult to find. They 
are not willing to let go. They want to hold on to 
old ideas, old standards of living, and old habits. 
They are afraid of finding themselves cut loose 
from the old moorings of thought. Anchored so 
many years, their anchors are embedded in the 
mud, and their life-craft is covered with barnacles. 
It would take a serious effort to cut their cables — 
to put the ship in order and be ready to sail on a 
voyage of discovery. Pride and indolence forbid. 
What would people think of such unusual prepara- 
tions } The ocean of Truth is very wide. How 
can they, with a new pilot, sail away from the haven 
where a fleet of friends lies idly swinging at an- 
chor.'* At last a storm arises and breaks the cable 
chains. The conservative mariners are driven out 
to sea by some event of life — a death, or an illness, 



19 

possibly a bankruptcy. Their seamanship is tested 
as never before. It is found, alas! very sadly at 
fault, and navigation must be studied anew. Bal- 
last has not been stowed away, and, as for cargo, it 
must all be thrown overboard to right the ship. 

Then begins the great lesson of letting go. 
Adrift and not well provisioned, men realize that 
their so-called "faith in God" was only faith in 
friends, in bank accounts, in church, or social posi- 
tion. Their "great possessions" prove to be like 
the "emigrant's gold" — the iron pyrites of the 
mining regions that are carefully hoarded by the 
tenderfoot until he learns that "fool's gold" can 
buy nothing. 

These fancied riches may be the self-righteous- 
ness of the pietist, the intellectual treasures of the 
scholar, worldly friendships, or influence and busi- 
ness credit. All these would be sadly compromised 
by any association with new cults. So men prefer 
their bondage, and indulge their indolence rather 
than let go. For the future, they are consoled by 
the expectation of a paradise where all treasures 
will be found; for the present, they cling to the 
bric-a-brac of life — things and friends and repu- 
tation. 

But what is highly esteemed among men is but 
lightly regarded in the kingdom of good. Human- 
ity can only postpone the day when there will be 
petitioners in bankruptcy mournfully crying, "Who 



20 



will show us any good?" Men must begin some 
time and somewhere as little children, before they 
can enter the kingdom of Truth. 



We need not be either ^< tempest tossed" or 
"fog bound" upon any day of our human exist- 
ence, for we are spiritually equipped for every pos- 
sible emergency of life, and need only recognize 
the divine power and intelligence at our command, 
to give us soundings and bring us into port. 

It is always we ourselves who raise the billows 
that threaten to engulf us, and the fogs that shut 
out our horizon, through our own mental agitations. 
In the severest storm, that ship rides easily that is 
encircled by the oil thrown out from its own cargo. 



IV. 



CHRISTIAN TRANSGRESSORS — THE 
DISEASE OF CONSERVATISM. 

No truth is so sublime but it may be trivial tomorrow in 
the light of new thoughts. 

People wish to be settled ; only as far as they are unsettled 
is there any hope for them. — Ejnerson. 

Progress is from the Latin ''pro," meaning for- 
ward, and ''gradi," to step. Retrogress is from 
"retro" and ''gradi," meaning to step backward, 
and transgress is to step across. 

"The way of the transgressor is hard." 

This is true of all who abandon progress and 
undertake to swing across the tides and currents 
of fresh thought, preferring old beliefs and preju- 
dices. 

No matter how closely they are allied with 
religious creeds and organizations, they may be 
"transgressors," and, if such, must inevitably suf- 
fer for what, perhaps, they mistakenly imagine to 
be wise "conservatism." 

Conservatism of error is never wise, and such 
suffering can in no sense be called "divinely ap- 
pointed." 

The only remedy is to recognize the harmonies 
of progressive thought, and accept the truth that 
"in good we are moved and have our being." 



22 

The modern transgressor usually prides himself 
upon his loyalty to thought that has really been 
outgrown by awakened minds. He enjoys the 
posing as a ''conservative," and very likely at the 
same time insists that he is ''liberal." The doctors 
and clergymen find their largest clientage among 
this class, for they are often chronic invalids, and 
their families are usually ailing and delicate. 

Mental science finds no difficulty in the diagnosis 
of such cases. 

The modern transgressor takes more counsel of 
his fears than of his confidence. He dwells upon 
his weakness rather than his strength. In politics 
and finance he is sure to consider every possibility 
of disaster and defeat that he can conjure up. 
These he exaggerates and magnifies to the greatest 
degree. The elements of success he considers last. 
He denies all recognition of his highest intelligence 
— the intuitional faculties. He prides himself on 
being "practical," and considers himself entitled to 
great credit for his "common sense." 

And so with bat-like blindness he knocks himself 
against first one difficulty and then another, often 
losing everything except his egotism. 

At last he leaves the body, wearied with what he 
imagines to be the necessary "conflict of life," and 
when his friends are saying he has "closed his eyes 
in death," those eyes are being opened for the first 
time to the meaning of real life, to which they have 
been always per^stently and obstinately blind. 



23 

There is a curious fiction in the line of that old 
hymn : 

"When mine eyelids close in death." 

As a matter of fact the eyes of the dead persis- 
tently open wide, and it is difficult to close them. 
It is as if nature herself intended to show that in- 
stead of the ''sleep of death," of which we hear so 
much, the change that has come is one of real 
awakening to a life of progress. 



BRIC-A-BRAC BONDAGE. 

The man or woman who would have remained a sunny- 
garden flower, with no room for its roots and too much sun- 
shine for its head, by the falling of the walls and the neglect 
of the gardener is made the banian of the forest, yielding 
shade and fruit to wide neighborhoods of men. — Einerso?i. 

An owner of ground sometimes sees his oppor- 
tunities and clears away dilapidated buildings, re- 
placing them with better ones. 

Sometimes he is neglectful, and a conflagration 
sweeps his property clear and shows him plainly 
that it is for his interest to build larger, fairer, and 
more commodious structures, better adapted to the 
wants of the day. 

The fire is often a spontaneous combustion from 
accumulated rubbish. 

Can we not see how these experiences are typical 
of life } 

How often do we find our fortunes swept away 
as by a conflagration, or ourselves prostrated by 
disease, or transferred by death to new activities. 

Doubtless, we suffer just as much to be taken 
away from all we have cherished in life, as to have 
our possessions taken from us while remaining here. 

There can be no doubt that the awakening after 



25 

death is often to a sense of complete bankruptcy 
and irreparable loss of friends, property, and influ- 
ence. What then remains to the spirit, whether 
here or there ? 

Simply to build again upon more solid founda- 
tions — to construct a more stately home for the 
soul, either in mortal or immortal realms — to so 
change the thought of life that its vibrations will 
attract, as a magnet, a more opulent and imper- 
ishable environment. 

We can never truly enjoy or possess till we have 
awakened to the truth that all we have springs from 
what we are, and that no plane of life has yet been 
discovered upon which this law does not govern. 

Let us not be in bondage to our bric-a-brac — to 
the selfish routine of life — or the claims of mistaken 
friendship. Let us not be slaves to any rigid pur- 
pose or ambition which could cramp or hinder us 
in our soul's progress. Let us not be fettered by 
opinions. 

If one has had a glimpse of the eternal equities, 
his brow can never again be clouded with anxiety 
and care ; his heart can never be heavy with a sense 
of fear or loss. 

We are the rightful masters of the universe and 
make its laws. 

When we become sensible of our limitations 
(which we have made ourselves), we call them 
natural law, and intrench ourselves behind what is 



26 



but the phantom of our ignorance. This we hasten 
to embody in the text -books of our sciences. 

No wonder that we are so continually obliged 
to revise and revolutionize our ^'scientific conclu- 
sions," so that yesterday's ''standard work" is 
valueless today. 

Our horizon line recedes as we advance. The 
limits of our atmospheres are not so easily reached 
as we imagined, and their composition is not so 
simple as we thought. The laws of storms are not 
so readily defined as we supposed. The forces of 
nature are not limited to the few elements with 
which we have made acquaintance. The simple 
wild rose can be differentiated by our new botany 
into thousands of varieties. 

The universal life is found to be a plastic force 
which we ourselves are learning to direct — to limit 
and expand at will in its relation to ourselves. 

The latest revelation of these closing days of the 
century, is not only that man is his own creator, 
but that he is the creator of all subordinate forms 
of life, and that no element yet discovered wholly 
defies his control. 

Principles are the only absolute laws. 

Fixed opinions are dangerous, whether of per- 
sons or things, of ourselves or one another. They 
take no account of the laws of growth or of the 
fact, as Emerson says, that all nature is "fluidic." 

Even the " everlasting hills " we know to be for- 



27 

ever changing in disintegration and reconstruction. 
Periodic cataclysms remodel the entire face of the 
globe and bring forth new worlds of plain and 
mountain. So does man change. He needs con- 
tinually to renew acquaintance with himself and his 
fellows. 

The real science of life is ever fresh adjustment. 
We never truly know ourselves or one another. 

We are never really the same in two successive 
days. Nature abhors fixity as much as she abhors 
a vacuum. 

Conservatism is an impossibility ; it is a purely 
fictitious quality. 

Even our conceptions of good are never quite 
the same at successive periods of our development. 

They advance with our knowledge and experi- 
ence of life. 

No two mortals can possibly worship the same 
God or hold to exactly the same standards, for both 
are the results of different experience. 

We begin by believing in the despotism of a 
personal God, whom we distort into a demon. We 
call this ''religion." As we progress we substitute 
for the tyranny of a God, the tyranny of a ''law." 

We call this "science." This is only changing 
the name of our deity. 

A step forward enlarges our horizon. We dis- 
cover that the law of our being is all we need to 
recognize ; it reveals the universal and interprets all. 



28 

We must be polarized to principle and not to 
theories and dogmas. 

When we are thus in equilibrium, we can take 
our compass into any waters, and it will always 
show us the true north. 

When magnetized by ideas and prejudices, we 
cannot voyage beyond the length of our cable 
chain. 

All our experiences serve as mirrors to reveal us 
to ourselves. We gain little from books, but the 
revelation of our own minds, and no real help from 
people but aids to self-discovery. No satisfaction 
from experience except as it results in self-develop- 
ment. Plato has said that all knowledge is remi- 
niscence. 

The mirror adds nothing to form or feature of 
the one who stands before it. 

It takes away nothing except in appearance, if it 
be concave or convex. If it is a true reflector, it 
show? the man to himself and as he is. 

Life brings the awakening to spiritual conscious- 
ness on the objective plane. Can there be any 
question that it is well worth living ? 

"All that we are is built out of what we have thought." 
— Dhammapada. 



29 



It is well that life makes such demands upon us 
and will not be satisfied with an easy discipline, nor 
confer upon us her degrees of honor till we have 
thoroughly proved our right to hold them. It is 
well worth while to be a graduate in all her 
schools. Her courses are severe ; but she never 
fails to put her faithful pupils in possession of 
illimitable powers, through unfoldment, which is 
the only education. 

A memory that etches anything too deeply into 
our brain-cells only cramps and hinders us. We 
should not fear to lose anything we really need to 
hold. 

If we gave less attention to the holding we 
would find ourselves more free. A true spiritual 
poise is never possible where either memory or 
expectation is unduly indulged and becomes hab- 
itual. 

Confident concentration at the point of personal 
indifference puts us in possession of the largest 
spiritual power. This is the inevitable result of 
knowledge. 



VI. 

POSTPONEMENT A DELUSION. 

'"Tis life of which our nerves are scant — 
O life, not death, for which I pant, 
More life and fuller that I want." 

I PREACH a gospel of true worldliness. Let us 
eat, drink, and be merry with the fruits of right- 
eousness, and know that we shall not die tomorrow. 

We err in thinking spiritual good can be pur- 
chased by self-denial. Life is not a matter of 
barter : a meal the less, a virtue the more ; a 
material indulgence sacrificed, a spiritual illumina- 
tion gained ; this world denied, another world 
secured as a reward. Let us recognize the full 
value of the here and now. 

Too long have we postponed our highest good 
to an uncertain future. We have thought life an 
illusion, and lived in a dream of ''heaven." 

We have been reluctant to face our responsi- 
bilities of today. 

Our piety has been largely indolence. Rather 
than reconstruct the world in which we find our- 
selves, we have been willing to postpone our good 
things to another, which we pictured as ready for 
our habitation and peopled with congenial spirits 
enjoying their reward. Yet we have no reason to 



31 

think that death releases any soul from even the 
least of its responsibilities. Rather must it open 
its eyes to a larger recognition of them. 

Can we not understand that the work we are 
postponing is not to be escaped by death, but that 
after death we shall demand infinitely more of our- 
selves than we do now, as a necessary condition 
of the peace that we desire ? 

If we could realize this, would we not take up 
more gladly the life that now is, and work out its 
problems with greater satisfaction and cheerfulness .'' 

The religion that feeds itself on the emotions, 
and talks of the life that is to come rather than 
apply itself to the duties and privileges of the hour, 
must prove worthless at the last. 

The wedding feast is open only to those who 
are equipped for its festivities. 

Heaven is doubtless a very great disappointment 
to most people. 

Many a saint whose body lies buried beneath a 
solemn monument sculptured with some text of 
promise and reward, whose friends imagine him 
to be among the very chosen ones around the 
throne, we have every reason to believe is groping 
sadly for the light of truth to which he denied 
recognition in this life, and seeking to undo, as 
far as possible, the work that was most loudly 
praised among his fellow men. 

This is no fanciful speculation. 



32 

This world is our problem. If we focus upon it 
all our spiritual powers, we will discover that it is 
not the *' desert " we have named it. 

It is a garden of delights, a veritable Eden to 
those who are not blind and deaf. 

What right or reason have we to suppose a 
"Paradise Lost," or anticipate a "Paradise Re- 
gained ?" 

It is a shuffling evasion of the truth. 

The promise of a millenium in the infinite per- 
spective is a moral anaesthetic, with which we 
hush the clamor of our souls, demanding better 
things of us in the present. 

All responsibilities and possibilities are ours 
today. 

Let us have done with this affectation of aversion 
to the world in which we live, this indefinite post- 
ponement of our happiness and powers. Let us 
cultivate worldliness, and learn truly what it is to 
enjoy the present. 

There is no problem that belongs to our time 
which we cannot solve. 

But we must work on the line of principle and 
not of precedent. Power does not come through 
policy and compromise. 

We cannot build in the external till we have 
fashioned the architecture first in mind. 

Sociology is a science of root culture. It will 



33 

never prove possible to paint the leaves and color 
the fruit successfully, except through the juices 
of the tree. 

We have all the factors of an earthly paradise 
within ourselves. 

The great temple of humanity will never be 
built by any other than human hands. 

Let us learn to mix the mortar and cut the 
blocks and plant our derricks, with confidence in 
our ability to build. 

Let us work with song and gladness. Let us 
rejoice in all the life that is ours. 

Then we will no longer exhaust ourselves in 
fighting shadows. 

We will find the Tree of Life standing in the 
midst of our garden, like the orange tree of the 
south, bearing at the same time bud, blossom, and 
fruit, and know that *'God giveth us richly all 
things to enjoy." 



34 



Nothing can delay or hasten us except ourselves. 
Nobody can hinder or obstruct events related to 
us. It is the interior condition of the individual 
that governs absolutely all and everything related 
to his life. 

Realization is possession. Postponement is the 
only obstruction. Both are in mind and govern 
"circumstances." 

When we come to the moment of interior real- 
ization of either health or opulence, we enter into 
full possession, and our thought becomes external- 
ized as surely as fruit follows blossom. 



VII. 

COUNTERFEIT BODIES. 

A STUDY IN VIBRATION. 

In nature all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore 
beautiful because it is alive, moving, reproductive. It is 
therefore useful because it is symmetrical and fair. — Emer- 
son. 

It is claimed by certain schools of metaphy- 
sicians that our bodies are counterfeits and not re- 
alities. If this were true, would it not follow that 
all bodies were counterfeits, those of animals and 
vegetables, and even the planet itself, and all other 
planets as well t 

We would live then in a counterfeited universe 
which could have been created only by a supreme 
counterfeiter, a spirit in whom we could put no 
trust ; for he must have issued an incalculable num- 
ber of spurious coins, and put them in circulation 
for some inscrutable and illusory purpose of his 
own. 

We sacrifice much in regarding mortal life as an 
illusion and postponing our realities. 

If this life and these bodies are only "seeming" 
and not actual, what reason have we to think that 
we shall ever enter into real life and real bodies ; 



36 

and how can we be sure that we would ever know 

them to be real ? 

It is like postulating the unknowable. How can 
we know that anything is unknowable ? 

Such a condition of mind cannot result in har- 
mony. 

It is not sanity. 

It does not show a mental or spiritual poise. 

Real spiritual illumination reveals life in the eter- 
nal now, and finds in it no counterfeits. 

It discovers the accurate operation of vibratory 
laws which continually manifest the spirit, and so 
truly that it proclaims itself in every tone we utter, 
in every movement that we make, in every angle 
and curve flowing from our pen. It manifests it- 
self in all the lines graven in the face and hand, 
and all the outlines of the body. 

It radiates in our atmosphere. We open the 
book of life to our neighbor's vision in a thousand 
ways. We cannot conceal ourselves. 

A student of the science of expression is never 
blind to the real self of any fellow-man with whom 
he comes in contact. He reads it with his eyes, 
with his touch. Its revelations come to him through 
every avenue of sense. 

Spiritual senses are not limited to five. 

In a clearer atmosphere than that of our Western 
world we find more stars in the Pleiades than are 
named in our astronomical text-books. 



37 

In the finer vibrations of spirit the perceptions 
take a wider range than on material planes. 

We change our narrow definitions of both mate- 
rial and spiritual things. We no longer scorn the 
one, nor unreasonably exalt the other. We recog- 
nize their tmity, and find their differences only in 
the rate of their vibrations. 

We find no arid wastes or desert lands in life 
except those of our ignorance. Tracts we have 
marked ''unknown " on our geographies we boldly 
enter as discoverers now, and plant our flag of con- 
quest and dominion in every province of the Holy 
Land of human life. We no longer organize cru- 
sades to capture empty sepulchres. 

The universe is ours. 

We are not held back from possession by that 
most imbecile excuse for ignorance, "We are not 
intended to know." We are not frightened from 
the analysis of truth by threats of danger to a 
"critical spirit," or by the bugaboos and scare- 
crows of theology. We are not struck by panic 
at the report of giants in Canaan. We refuse to 
be driven by our fears from the borders of the 
promised land, to wander for another generation in 
the wilderness. 

We have found the lines of correspondence run- 
ning through all the warp and woof of life. 

If we watch the chemist in his laboratory we find 
him studying the law of chemical affinities. 



38 

This is the law of sympathetic vibration. 

It deals with atmospheres and ethers, with alka- 
lies and carbonates, condenses atmosphere, pre- 
cipitates moisture, freezes water, reduces solids to 
fluids and changes them again to solids, even mak- 
ing objective that which has been invisible and in- 
tangible. A solid bar of steel is dematerialized by 
the electric current. 

We call these ''chemical changes." 

What has taken place ? The rate of molecular 
vibration has been slowed or quickened, bringing 
matter within the range of sense perception, or 
carrying it beyond. 

Yet everything is real and has proceeded in ex- 
act accordance with the laws of chemics. 

Does not this throw light upon the problem of 
the mortal life ? 

We have said that matter and spirit differ only 
in the rate of their vibration. 

The body is as real as the spirit. All our ex- 
periments in physics have shown matter itself to 
be imperishable. We have found abundant reason 
to believe in the absolute indestructibility of atoms, 
in their persistent energy, the conservation and cor- 
relation of their forces. 

Is it not, then, a serious error to assert that we 
are here for the purpose of "spiritualizing the ma- 
terial," without asserting at the same time, as a 



39 

companion truth, that our work includes and neces- 
sitates the materializing of the spiritual f 

It seems to be the purpose of life to externalize 
spirit in matter; and in the process we awaken to 
a spiritual consciousness, and become the masters 
of matter and architects of its forms. Can we do 
this if we despise it, and consider it beneath our 
spiritual dignity to recognize and deal with it ? Can 
we do this if we imagine all material life to be illu- 
sory ? 

Are the toys and picture alphabets of the kinder- 
garten useless ? 

Are they not rather the necessary preliminaries 
to the study of the sciences in books ? 

How would we answer a child who demanded the 
books before he had learned his letters ? 

The illustration of the diver suggests some things 
for our consideration. 

He desires to enter an element more dense than 
that in which he lives. He seeks treasures at the 
bottom of the ocean. Being too buoyant for the 
element of water, he constructs a more material 
body than his own, which is better adapted to the 
work before him. His diving suit is not as light 
or elegant as the clothes he wears among his fel- 
lows in his ordinary sphere of life; but it is just as 
real. 

It is made heavy with metal to give weight suffi- 



40 

cient to drop him to the bottom and resist the 
pressure of the waters. It is provided with glass 
windows through which he can look out, though 
dimly. It has an atmosphere supplied through 
breathing tubes connected with the upper air. In 
the density of the salt water he walks easily in this 
heavy suit. He completes his work, rises to the 
surface, and removes the armor in which he has 
been encased. 

He remains the same man as before, with only 
the addition of experience. 

Let us apply this figure to the mortal life. 

We need to come into the atmosphere of Earth, 
which is too dense for the spirit in its normal state. 

We materialize a body at birth, probably chosen 
and equipped by the spirit itself from a point of 
higher intelligence than the mortal for its especial 
work and needs in earthly life. It is a tool with 
which to work in matter. Its problem is to ma- 
terialize spirit and make it manifest in many 
ways. 

Having done this first at birth, the process is 
continued with every atom that we build into our 
bodies and throw off. 

This requires a slowing of vibration, which sepa- 
rates the spirit for awhile from close and conscious 
relation with its fellows on immortal planes, yet 
makes it necessary to draw from those planes its 
vital atmosphere. 



41 

Death comes when work in the objective is fin- 
ished for the time, through lack of knowledge to 
prolong the process. 

The coarser body is laid off, and it steps out of 
its encasement into the finer vibrations of the spir- 
itual planes. In this work which it has done the 
Earth environment made it as necessary to mate- 
rialize spirit as to spiritualize matter. 

In the last analysis we shall doubtless find that 
spirit and matter are identical. 

How, then, can we call this a ''dream life" and 
assert that we live in the unreal ? Does not this 
very attitude result in an unbalanced mind ? 

''Life is real" — dea^/i is the ilhision. Our les- 
sons in matter are not to be evaded with "denials." 
As well might the schoolboy "deny" his alphabet 
and his tables in arithmetic because he had not 
yet discovered their relation to philosophy and the 
propositions of Euclid. Let us learn the funda- 
mental principles of life^ and we shall understand 
at last the macrocosm. 



42 

The different experiences of our lives are like 
chapters in a book. 

Taken separately they seem to have but little 
meaning to us. 

Their real significance comes from the chapters 
that went before and those that follow. 

When bound together in a completed volume, 
we can see the relation of one experience to an- 
other. We will then perceive the harmony and 
understand the narrative. 

Do not lament that your friend is on the "animal 
plane." It is a great thing to be a good animal. 
Many who think themselves beyond that point of 
evolution have not reached it yet. There is no 
phase of growth that should be despised. All are 
alike good ; all men pass over the same road, and 
sight its milestones at the same points of the jour- 
ney, though in different hours. Some loiter and 
others press on more earnestly. We should not 
quarrel with the wayfarer who lingers by the road- 
side. It is his privilege ; and at some other point 
beyond, his pace may take him far ahead of us. 
There is no reason for haste. Every soul knows 
its appointed times and places. 

We need not regret that those of others do not 
always coincide with ours. 



VIII. 
A PIVOTAL PHILOSOPHY. 

"The light that is within thee." 

The scientific world is just beginning to conjec- 
ture that light is an interior condition. The cat 
sees in an atmosphere that to the human eye is 
darkness. Among men there is an infinite variety 
of vision. An environment may be opaque to one 
and transparent to another. 

The discovery of the X-rays has demonstrated 
the existence of a radiant energy that infolds us, a 
light within the light, and of a vibration so rapid 
that it is invisible until we have provided special 
conditions for its manifestation. Spectrum analysis 
has revealed more of the nature of light and color 
than we had ever dreamed possible to discover. 
The man with the seeing eye lives in a different 
world from that of the blind man. Let us study 
the correspondence of this truth in philosophy. 

We hear much of the New Thought. What is 
"new" as distinguished from the "old".-* In the 
old thought we sought cause and consequence out- 
side ourselves. We had an absent God in a far-off 
heaven. We had a Devil, who "went about as a 
roaring lion." We had a Mediator, who "came 
down" from heaven as a sacrifice for sin and re- 



44 

turned to make intercession for us. We had a Holy- 
Spirit that must be implored to "descend" upon 
us. We dwelt upon Providence, fate and destiny 
as governing powers. Heredity and environment 
were influences which relieved us to a large degree 
of personal responsibility. Disease, poverty, and 
sin were from without, and were contagious, infec- 
tious, and epidemic. Our motives were almost 
wholly in the external. "What will people think?" 
was constantly in our minds — implanted in the 
nursery and developed in society. "Henceforth 
remember that the eyes of the world are upon 
you" was solemnly enjoined upon the convert at 
the altar rail. We lived in fear of God, of the 
Devil, and of one another; as the old hymn so 
aptly expressed it, "Fightings without and fears 
within." This was considered the divinely ap- 
pointed order of things, and we were taught that 
our salvation must be worked out "with fear and 
trembling." Man's hope of salvation was mostly 
from without, and his only dream of a real happi- 
ness lay in the misty realms of a remote paradise. 
So much for the old thought. 

The new thought may be truly called a pivotal 
philosophy. It changes all the old bearings of life 
and brings everything to a centre within the indi- 
vidual himself. It teaches him to think. It brings 
him to a poise — a pivot in himself. It withdraws 
his scattered thought-forces from the externals of 



45 

life and shows him limitless results to be accom- 
plished through concentration. It teaches absolute 
freedom, with absolute responsibility for all the 
past, present, and future. 

God exists within ; and, as a fountain cannot rise 
higher than its source, the only conception of God 
possible to each life is limited by its own experience 
of divine impulses. Every human life is a magnet 
which, through the law of vibratory affinity, must 
draw to each man precisely what he elects — no 
more and no less. We owe neither our good for- 
tune nor our so-called misfortune to one another. 
The supreme motive of life is the realization of 
being. 

The New Thought teaches that all heredity, en- 
vironment, and interior conditions are controlled 
by the soul, and that man's life is not governed to 
the least degree by any outsidecircumstances. He 
simply responds to these as they touch the chords 
of sympathetic vibration within himself. The New 
Thought reveals to him the absolute equities of ex- 
istence. It shows the objective life as plastic clay 
moulded at will through the intelligent use of sub- 
jective consciousness. It increases activities by re- 
vealing powers and showing man how to keep his 
hand upon the lever. It places under control the 
marvellous forces of a universal energy. It radi- 
cally alters all man's relations to God, to himself, 
and to his fellows. It teaches him to live at the 



46 

centre rather than the circumference of life ; to live 
in the now rather than in the past or the hereafter. 
It reveals man as the true son of God, and as such 
having absolute control over destiny. 

It finds in the story of the Christ a revelation 
of one's own subjective experience upon the higher 
spiritual plane. 

Finally, the new philosophy proclaims that the 
great solvent of all truth, the centre of all power, 
the source and ultimate of all being, are found in 
the harmonies of love. Only through love can man 
enter the realms of perfect peace. Fear is the 
only cause of illusion. What, then, can death add ? 
Man has already found heaven by simply opening 
his eyes to the light within. His spiritual faculties 
have been sensitized and developed to a point of 
power heretofore ascribed to the supernatural, and 
considered quite beyond the possibilities of human 
life. He need not postpone to the revelations of 
the future the things he desires to know today. 
He has sought, and he has found. He has knocked, 
and it has been opened unto him. 



47 



If we only realized how petty are our custom- 
ary drafts upon our spiritual, mental, and physical 
forces, as compared with the illimitable reservoir of 
strength and life upon which we may draw at will, 
we would perceive that our chief necessity is in 
learning to recognize the true nature of that which 
we call "life." 

^'^'^ 

Our friends are always very ready to remind us 
that we are "human," instead of suggesting the 
higher fact that we are "divine." 

^^'^ 

When a man becomes sufficiently deranged to 
forget the usual limitations he puts upon himself, 
his strength and endurance become incalculable, as 
is frequently shown with maniacs. 



IX. 

BITTER MEDICINE. 

The wise man always throws himself on the side of his 
assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find 
his weak point. — E?nerson. 

Before the eye can see, it must be incapable of tears. 
Before the ear can hear, it must have lost its sensitiveness. 
— "-Light on the Path:' 

The first condition of mental healing is that the 
patient should be willing to take his medicine. 
With this assured, and a healer capable of intui- 
tional diagnosis, there is no disease that is incur- 
able. It has been abundantly demonstrated that 
all disease results from fault of disposition. 

It follows that all healing is correction of the 
character. 

It has been wisely said that character is formu- 
lated will. To correct the will is to change the 
disposition. The result is always harmony and 
health. 

Before the patient can be really healed, he must 
be told the cause of the disease. He may be 
temporarily' relieved by silent treatment, the diffi- 
culty may be alleviated. No cure can be estab- 
lished without teaching ; for otherwise the cause 
has not been reached. 

It is not comfortable to face our faults, to recog- 



49 

nize our weakness. It is not pleasurable to submit 
to the surgeon's knife. In the matter of poisons 
no one hesitates to use emetics, however distaste- 
ful. In case of necessity we sacrifice an injured 
limb without seriously considering the pain of the 
operation. We are willing if our eye offend us 
to pluck it out; or if our hand or foot offend 
us to cut it off and cast it from us, that we may 
save the body. Shall we then object to the 
scrutiny of our mental ailments, when we once 
have found in them the cause of all our troubles ? 

The most skilful surgeon has the strongest hand, 
the practiced eye. His tools are keenly edged. 
He depends upon his knowledge that has come 
through study and experience, and does not appeal 
to his patient's whims, or ask his opinion upon the 
details of the necessary operation. He is employed 
to reach results. He follows his own methods, 
stipulating only that the patient shall submit him- 
self obediently to his directions. 

If anyone thinks that mental surgery is painless, 
it is because he has never been subjected to it. 
As to the ''old school" treatment of an invalid, 
blue pills and calomel are as clover honey com- 
pared to the black draughts of mental medicine, 
when faithfully administered. 

The causes of sufferings lie deep. The remedies 
must reach the vitals. All our artificial sentiments 
must be swept away. Our self esteem must often 



50 

be ruthlessly destroyed. Our bandages must be 
removed, our sores examined. We must face our- 
selves, come out into the open, and no longer seek 
concealment or evasion. 

Will we meet this test.^ If not no cure is 
possible. 

If we have suffered sufficiently we will not 
desire to deny or excuse our faults. We will not 
defend or extenuate. We will not run to shelter. 
We will not flinch though we may suppress a 
groan, for the suffering is acute and real. 

If we have reached the point of desiring truth 
above all things, we will throw ourselves upon the 
side of our critics. We will forget the extreme 
"sensitiveness" upon which we have prided our- 
selves. The "bitter tears" will no longer come 
to our eyes. We are ready to hear and to see 
the things which are spiritually discerned. It is 
the real self we seek to know. The personal self 
is not now an object of solicitude or pity. 

At last we know the meaning of those old words 
of the psalmist, " Great peace have they who love 
thy law, and nothing shall offend them," 

We are now ready to be healed. 

Truth, passing by Bethesda's pool where we 
have lain so long, commands : 

"Arise, take up thy bed, and walk." 

At last we see, we hear, we live. 



51 



"For it is God which worketh in you both to will 
and to do." Neither illness nor poverty can result 
from the work of good. Good does not work 
meanly. The only gauge of life is our capacity to 
receive. The source of good has never been fath- 
omed. It is a bottomless ocean. But we are never 
compelled to embark upon it. 

Man's freedom is complete. No power in the 
universe compels him to be good. But when he 
has chosen good, he is invulnerable at every point. 

No floods can overwhelm him. 

Underneath are "Everlasting Arms." 



X. 

DOMESTIC DESPOTS. 

The spreading of new thought reveals a phase 
of domestic tyranny which is rather startHng in 
our nineteenth century. In many a home circle 
there is marked resistance to the effort of the 
child or companion to study on new lines. This 
opposition always springs from jealousy — from a 
fear that the student will come to find the old 
affections and domestic influences weakened by 
entering on independent paths and gaining new 
associates and views. It is a fear of free thinking 
which instinctively protests against the breaking 
of old fetters. It asserts its selfish domination 
of the other's mind with ruthless despotism, in the 
name of love. 

How shall such opposition be met ? This de- 
pends upon the value that we set on truth. It may 
be necessary to choose, as Emerson says, between 
truth and repose. Perhaps the alternative is offered 
us of a comfortable bondage and an uncomfortable 
assertion of personal freedom. It is a matter to be 
determined by the individual himself. 

But there are principles involved which ought 
to be considered. True affection never plays 
the tyrant. The highest wisdom never yields to 



53 

tyranny. The soul must be its own master. Para- 
dise admits no citizens, but freemen. We talk 
much of bodily freedom. To be free in thought 
is to be free in action. 

There is no other freedom possible. Truth ad- 
mits of no compromise. It scorns the service of 
a coward. To indulge a despot in his despotism 
is the worst injury we can inflict upon him. To 
submit to any bondage in our own thought-life 
is the worst wrong we can inflict upon ourselves. 
The true man or woman desires no power over 
another. Self-government is a necessity of life. 
We need not ask it as a privilege of anyone. We 
are never alone when we step forward in the paths 
of truth. The spirit of love is both wise and fear- 
less. It claims all things for itself, that it may 
richly share with others. 



54 



The fact that any persons or experiences have 
come into relation with us is sufficient evidence 
that in the equities of Hfe we are to receive from 
them and give, as a necessary part of our own 
development. In this thought we should welcome 
all alike, and thus find them to be friendly to us. 

Beware of intruding upon other's mental premises. 

A healer has no more right to force his thought 
currents upon another than he has to go into the 
house of a friend and insist on giving medicine 
that is not wanted, or injecting secretly into the 
morning coffee something he believes will be bene- 
ficial to the family. 

We have no right to urge unwelcome benefits. 

Nothing is good that violates a principle. 

Absolute freedom of the individual is necessary 
to real development. Good is a matter of conscious 
choice. 



XL 
SELF-SACRIFICE— A NEW DEFINITION. 

God can give us nothing less than the best at any 
moment of our existence — the best we are capable 
of receiving. 

How, then, can ^^^oM'Sacrifice'' be possible if it 
is the fulfillment of our highest good ? 

Let us not confound self-sacrifice with service. 

We gain the highest development through ser- 
vice, but God's service can never require the 
sacrifice of self. 

His resources are not so limited as to make 
that necessary. 

Why should it be thought nobler to live for the 
development of other lives than for our own.** 
What is service } 

Is not service the yielding of ourselves to the ex- 
pression of the divine ? and why may not the divine 
express itself equally through all .^ 

Let us recognize the fact, that all life is di- 
vine, and that each lives for his own unfoldment 
equally with that of others ; for divine humanity 
has its home in a universe; it is not cHyqisq, for God 
is one. 

"Love thy neighbor as thyself." 

To do more or less fails of the balance of per- 
fect equity. 



56 

Let us not glorify our faults, as if they were vir- 
tues; for even *' unselfishness" may be a vice, and 
only another name for the most subtle and insid- 
ious of vices — self -righteousness. 

It cannot be true that "even Christ pleased not 
himself," or that he was "a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief." 

If he possessed at all the ideal character attrib- 
uted to him, he must of necessity have found the 
highest gladness possible to our divinely human 
nature in the royal opportunities of service that 
were given him. 

Nor could he have "sorrowed" for others^ know- 
ing the grandeur of their destiny, and that at every 
moment of existence all things work together for 
good to every one. 

True sovereignty is in service, as every spirit- 
ually awakened nature knows; therefore, in such 
service one fulfills the highest harmony of being, 
and secures to himself the greatest pleasure possi- 
ble, the highest joy, and the furthest removed from 
"grief." 

If we find such opportunities ever wearisome 
and irksome, and are minded to "count the cost," 
deeming them "self-sacrifices," we may know we 
have not yet struck the true keynote of love; else 
service would never seem a discipline or self-denial. 

It is our egotism makes the discord, and the 
value of our doing is not in the benefits we secretly 



think that we confer, so much as in the gradua-l 
awakening of our own spiritual intelligence, which 
brings us finally to understand that real being and 
real doing are identical. 



Why should we look for gratitude in others ? 

It should never occur to a true life even to de- 
sire it. 

It is as if a tree should count the blossoms it 
sheds or the fruit it bears, or the fields concern 
themselves with the question as to who gathered 
and consumed their harvests. 

The purpose of life is growth, not gratitude. 

He who has permitted me to serve him has fur- 
nished me a valuable opportunity. He has ren- 
dered me a benefit, which I can only repay to some 
other soul in need of like expression. 

A true soul asks nothing of its fellows but to be 
allov/ed to give. 

All that it gets is from good, and this resource 
is never limited. The source is infinite and its 
channels innumerable. 



XII. 
VICIOUS VIRTUES. 

The terror of reform is that we must cast away our vir- 
tues. — Emerson. 

Suffering is the effort of nature to restore its 
equilibrium, seeking to detach from itself dead tis- 
sue of matter or mind, of flesh or thought. 

Life can hold only that which is beautiful and 
gladsome. 

Life is joy, is love, is good. All troubles are 
parasites. 

The service of good is perfect freedom. *' Con- 
scientiousness " is only a virtuous name for a 
vicious mental state. It is really egotism mas- 
querading as a virtue, and holds one in a state of 
anxious bondage. 

The introspective thought is far removed from 
self-forgetfulness. 

It is a curious fact that truth is usually the exact 
reverse of our popular standards. 

If we challenge the ideas that have long paraded 
themselves as " Christian virtues " and strip off 
their masks and dominoes, we shall find in many 
instances that they should be avoided. They re- 
veal virtue only by contrast with themselves. 

Thus "resignation," if accepted, is an apathy 



59 

which can only paralyze all earnest effort for 
betterment. 

It is really the vice of indolence. "Meekness," 
''humility," and ''contentment" are stolen robes in 
which this same indolence too often hides itself. 

Self-depreciation is as mischievous as slander of 
another. It is a mental suicide, when sincere, 
though it is oftener an affectation and pretence 
of modesty, perhaps not even recognized as such 
by the pretender. This, too, is one of the many 
subtle forms of the vice of self-esteem. 

The healthy nature does not wish to conceal its 
talents or deny its faults. 

"Conservatism " is often a refuge of weak minds, 
a respectable shelter for those who have not the 
courage of their convictions, or are entirely without 
opinions, never having learned to think. It is a 
sort of "institute" for the feeble-minded, a "re- 
treat " for genteel poverty of thought. 

"Sympathy" degenerates into a morbid senti- 
mentalism that brings no stimulus to healthy effort 
and encouragement. 

No true soul will tolerate "pity" for himself, 
either in his own mind or the mind of a friend; nor 
will he inflict it upon another. 

Domestic tyranny conceals itself in "parental 
affection," while morbid selfishness is disguised as 
"grief." 

"Toleration " is but a synonym of self-righteous- 
ness and self-conceit. 



6o 



" Patriotism *' is the old vice of clannishness un- 
der a more pretentious name, — whenever it appeals 
to passion and arouses jealousy of border lines. 

In the spiritual vocabulary there can be no such 
thing as '^righteous indignation." It is the desire 
of resentment for revenge. 

** Caution " and '^ prudence" are often cowardice 
disguised. ''Hope," of necessity, implies a fear. 
''Consistency," as Emerson says, is but the "hob- 
goblin of little minds, with which a great soul has 
simply nothing to do." 

Artificial virtues are the moral anodynes with 
which we seek to drug our spiritual consciousness. 

We hear much of the terrible "responsibility" 
of parents, of teachers, of rulers. We grieve and 
distress ourselves with the fear that we may over- 
look and neglect our highest possibilities, may fail 
to discern our opportunities. We are under con- 
stant strain and worry from this thought. 

We should know that we can have no responsi- 
bility that we need fear, either for ourselves or 
others. 

Every activity should be a joy; none a source of 
anxiety. 

What did God do before we came ^ What wi/l 
he do when we are gone .'* 

We meet the requirements of the hour by direct- 
ing our spiritual forces upon the work in hand. 

We have nothing to regret, to fear, to hope. 



6i 



We know that the supreme good works in us al- 
ways to will and to do. 

We may move in our life orbits as serenely as 
the planets. 

If we permit the universal will to guide us and 
its power to act through us, we cannot fail to dis- 
cern or improve any occasion of good service or 
development. 

As the light shines through our eyes, the air 
breathes through our lungs, and the blood circu- 
lates through our system, so will the universal in- 
telligence manifest itself through our daily lives if 
we only ''give passage to its beams." 

If we are filled with love there is nothing in us 
to respond to a false note. Disease is impossible. 
We cannot deceive ourselves, nor be deceived by 
others. 

It is generally through deep suffering that we 
learn to detach from us the thought of self. 

Not until this has been done can we enter the 
realms of perfect peace. 



62 



Vices are distorted virtues, virtues inverted 
through misdirected force. 

They are an evidence of power rather than of 
weakness, Hke fire that has broken from its barriers 
and consumes rather than warms. 

We should not deal with vice as weakness, but 
should teach the vicious to recognize and wisely 
apply the energy that has been scattered. 

When weeds are brought under cultivation they 
often become our favorite garden flowers. 



XIII. 
VIRTUOUS VICES. 

The secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to exist for us; 
to realize all that we know; in the high refinement of modern 
life, in arts, in sciences, in books, in men, to exact good 
faith, reality, and a purpose; and first, last, midst, and with- 
out end to honor every truth by use. — Emerson. 

It is a custom of merchants to have an annual 
''taking account of stock." At such times they ex- 
amine carefully the goods on hand, clear the shelves 
of unsaleable articles, mark down those that have 
become shopworn or out of season, and put new 
values on all for which there is unusual demand. 

Just so in the thought life of a community, we 
find that periodically there is by general consent 
a taking account of stock. Old standards and 
ideas are removed from the shelves and carefully 
examined in the light of new discoveries, their char- 
acter and usefulness are challenged, and their con- 
dition tested. 

If they have become unserviceable for any rea- 
son, and higher thought has led to higher standards, 
the old theories and views of life and conduct are 
soon laid aside. Their defects have become appa- 
rent, and better things are in demand. 

At the same time some ancient truth or teacher 
that has been long labelled "pagan " and put upon 



64 

a shelf comes suddenly into notice ; new meaning 
and unsuspected value are found in the proscribed 
philosophy. It throws a fresh light upon all the 
ethical problems of the day, and is in danger of be- 
coming popular. 

In this moral stock-taking we are often surprised 
to find the necessity of a new classification of what 
we have called *' virtues" and *' vices." 

In the light of higher principles and larger 
knov/ledge we find we must change the tags that 
have been carelessly put on. Some virtues do not 
hold their color in the sunshine of the new century. 
Some vices prove to be ''all wool and will wash." 

What we thought wine has turned to vinegar; 
while an occasional cask we have looked upon sus- 
piciously and placed in the darkest corner of our 
cellar, we find to be from some rare old vintage, 
when brought to the light of day, with sparkling 
color and a beautiful aroma. 

Let us examine anew some of these things we 
have thought vicious, and revise our definitions 
where we find it necessary. 

A stammerer puts his emphasis upon the words 
he finds most difficult to pronounce. The average 
man or woman will be most emphatic in his thought 
and conversation in condemning those qualities in 
which he secretly finds his greatest difficulties. 
He will commend the things which he most lacks. 
So true is this that it provides us with a pass key 



65 

to character. If we judge men by the opposites of 
their professions, we will often get the wisest under- 
standing of them. 

They bluster always, if at all, at their weak 
points. A quality in which we know we are strong 
is one we rarely need to assert. The virtue that 
we praise the most is the one in which we are 
deficient. 

The place for us to post our sentinels is where 
we are supposed by ourselves and our friends to 
have least need of them. 

True virtue is unconscious of itself. It is a nor- 
mal condition. Consciousness of virtue indicates 
vice. 

Consciousness of vice suggests a truly virtuous 
spirit struggling for the mastery. 

One of the most abused words in the language 
has been ''freethinker," with its synonyms of ''in- 
fidel" and "skeptic." 

We speak of "freedom" with enthusiasm when 
applied to liberty of movement — emancipation 
from political bondage, from the tyranny of civil 
government. 

But we have almost universally condemned "free 
thought." 

The time has come for us to frankly admit that 
there is no grander term in the language than that 
of "freethinker," one who is truly emancipated in 
his thought, free from fear of opinion, from preju- 



66 



dice and superstition, open to perceive the truth in 
any quarter, without Hmitation of his own. 

" Infidel " has been a name of reproach. It is 
only a geographical distinction. It is applied to 
one who does not accept the popular belief of the 
country in which he lives. It is a matter of lati- 
tude and longitude. I have a friend who has been 
stoned in eastern countries as an infidel, and called 
a ''dog of a Christian," because he was not a fol- 
lower of ''The True Prophet," and has suffered 
almost the same reproach in our western world, 
because he could not subscribe to the theological 
opinions of his orthodox associates. 

"Skeptic" is from the Greek. Its root meaning 
is "one who is looking for the truth," "who is 
thoughtful," "who considers," "an inquirer after 
facts." Yet we have warned each other against 
"skepticism," and abused the skeptic as a criminal 
because he would persist in declining to accept as 
truth, without inquiry, what we considered facts, 
embodied in religious dogmas. 

The only " infidelity " is the worship of the 
golden calf, the reverence for things material rather 
than things spiritual. 

This it is which results in the "quenching of the 
spirit." 

It leads to dishonest professions of faith and 
creeds, which are required by conventionality, but 
not accepted by the heart. 



67 

A "radical " is one who seeks the roots of things. 
He is not content with mere assertions and super- 
ficial opinions. 

A '^ rationalist " is one who insists upon the 
right to use his reason. 

All these terms have been persistently hurled as 
epithets of abuse by the majority, against those 
who would not recognize their tyranny in matters 
of religious thought and quietly accept their opin- 
ion as authority. The things for which these 
seekers after truth were made to suffer have been 
considered ''vices," have been labelled ''danger- 
ous," and deemed just grounds of suspicion, re- 
gardless of his life and character who dared to 
question the conventional opinion. 

"Frivolity" is another virtuous vice. Under 
the regime of puritanism which has dominated 
New England for many generations, mirth and 
levity have been discountenanced and suppressed. 
Life has become so serious that many have lost the 
sense of joy and buoyancy which characterize the 
normal human animal. We have lived under an 
exaggerated thought of our responsibilities. No 
wonder that the land is filled with nervous invalids. 
The only medicine that many need is the vibration 
of a gladsome mirth, a frank and hearty laughter, 
more frivolity and levity of disposition, and less 
thought of personal salvation. 

We need to cultivate the "carelessness " of which 



68 

we have been so often warned ; to build it upon the 
confidence that life is really beautiful and to be 
enjoyed, and not to be gotten through quickly and 
put off as a shoe that pinches. 

Let us ^'take no anxious thought for the mor- 
row." It does not help us. It befogs and wearies 
us most uselessly. Let us learn the meaning of 
*' divine recklessness" and the ''negligency of that 
trust which carries God with it." 

For heaven's sake let us get away from that 
bondage of system and method in which we have 
felt so cramped that no pleasure was welcomed, 
unless it came within our program of the day's 
duties and was included in our ''stint." A bit of 
"laziness " would soften and improve many a stern 
New England character. 

No wonder we have become restless and dis- 
contented ! 

"Unrest" and "discontent" are changed to vir- 
tues when they stimulate us to seek better things. 

And so we find as we progress that many of the 
fields that are marked "no thoroughfare" will open 
to us the King's highway, and many of the things 
marked " dangerous " conceal our highest good. 

When we subject to honest analysis the fixed 
opinions of our day and generation, we discover 
vice in many virtues and virtue in many vices. 

It is high time we took a new account of stock, 
and applied the test of principle to all things we 
have accepted as truth. 



69 



We often speak of evil habit when we ought to 
speak of the evil of habit. 

It is doubtful if there is any such thing as a 
good habit. 

When action has no reasonable cause behind it 
as a motive, and becomes simply automatic, there 
can be no life remaining in it. 

It is not good habits but principles that we 
should teach our children. 

^'^^ 

Moral obligations to others are at least of equal 
importance with financial responsibilities. Yet 
there are many who lose sight of the one while 
eagerly insisting on the other, upon which they 
pride themselves as a special virtue, the mainte- 
nance of *' business credit." 

There are other bankruptcies than those which 
are recognized in courts of law. There are other 
courts from which there is no appeal and in which 
the prisoner is his own stern judge. 



XIV. 
MISERABLE OFFENDERS. 

My peace I give unto you. — Jesus. 

The objection to conforming to usages that have become 
dead to you is that it scatters your force. It loses your 
time and blurs the impression of your character. And of 
course so much force is withdrawn from your proper life. — 
Ejnerson. 

SUNDAY. 

We have done those things which we ought not to have 
done, and we have left undone those things which we should 
have done, and there is no health in us. 

O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. 

Be pleased, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin. 

MONDAY. 

We have done those things, etc., etc. 
Miserable offenders. 
Lord, this day without sin. 

And so, ad infinituin, through all the days and 
weeks and years, do many people, claiming to be 
intelligent and reasonable, renew and alternate 
confession and petition, without a thought of the 
mockery of asking to be kept ''without sin," while 
holding persistently to the confident expectation of 
returning the next day to confess their " sins " and 
pose again* as ''miserable offenders." 

Evidently their God is powerless to "keep 
them," and they know it ; for he has never yet 



71 

kept them a single day without sin. But why do 
they go through this miserable form of pretence, 
and imagine in their pagan childishness that it is 
pleasing to their deity and helpful to themselves ? 
One would think the salt would lose its savor, and 
the pious fraud would cease to satisfy their own 
minds. These religious nostrums of the Prayer 
Book have been the patent medicines and cure-alls 
of the last three centuries. They are the bromides 
and opiates with which we have dulled the spiritual 
consciousness in order that we might slumber a 
little longer. 

We have magnetized ourselves with the sound 
of our own voices in the Litany, but the sun has 
climbed so high we cannot longer sleep. We are 
compelled at last to open our eyes, and perceive 
that a new day has dawned. 

The only point of these routine confessions 
which is of any special consequence is that '' there 
is no health in us." After many repetitions it be- 
comes an accomplished fact, a thought externalized. 
So true is this that the physicians find their most 
profitable employment among the most ''devout." 
It is the "good" people, the ''religious" people, 
who are usually the habitual invalids. Their mis- 
taken thought has borne its legitimate fruit. Na- 
ture has arraigned them as transgressors. It 
is not for our acts we need to make atonement 
with ourselves, but for our thoughts. We attach 



72 

too much importance to what we do or fail to do, 
because we overlook the fact that all cause is in 
mind. The important matter is to permit no ob- 
struction in ourselves to the b.est things, but to 
root out all unrighteous thought as it presents 
itself. 

When we are habitually impatient to declare ou.r 
own views rather than to listen to those of others, 
we show plainly that we are not learners. It is 
useless to talk of spiritual truth to those who are 
hypnotized by prejudice. They simply cannot 
hear. The thought will fail to reach them, and 
result only in irritation. They must be awakened 
from their trance by some shock of life, before their 
ears are open. 

Let us beware of missionary zeal. It is delusive. 
People we can help will be attracted to us. We 
will be led to others who can do us good. We can 
trust this law of spiritual attraction. It is the 
manifestation of divine wisdom. There can be no 
doubt of a personal God, but we must enlarge our 
ideas of ''person." Something of good is manifest 
in every life, and every person is a part of the 
"grand man " which all ^humanity embodies as the 
Supreme One, the Divine. "God" is our highest 
possible ideal of character. It can include no trait 
that does not manifest itself in some individual of 
the race. Otherwise we could not conceive it. 
God is the incorporation of our largest thought. 



71 

Every soul with earnest, honest purpose may be 
sure of finding the truth he seeks. 

It will often seem to be by paths and methods 
he would not have chosen. 

We sometimes discover the obstructions we must 
surmount by running our heads against them. 

The muscular system of the spirit needs to be 
developed as well as its perceptions. This appears 
to be one of the chief uses of our objective world. 

We have no reason, however, to fear failure in 
anything we are really called to do. We will find 
ourselves equipped for every work for which we are 
responsible. 

The principle of muscular development is found 
in the overcoming of inertia. All gymnastic ap- 
paratus has this end in view. The pulleys are 
weighted ; the vaulting-horse stands in the way, 
and must be cleared at a bound; the muscles must 
meet resistance, — persistent and severe. In this 
way they acquire strength and flexibility. This is 
equally true of intellectual and spiritual develop- 
ment. We find that the same law governs alike 
upon all planes of life. The law of correspondence 
is an invaluable key to the problems of existence. 

All life demands expression. There is no ex- 
pression possible without resistance. Man could 
not walk without the resistance of the ground. He 
could not speak without the resistance of his teeth 
and lips to differentiate the sounds he utters. The 



74 

bird could not fly without the beating of its wings 
against the air. The fish could not swim without 
the pressure of the water on its fins. What we call 
the "trials of life" are the elements that make pos- 
sible, through resistance, the multiplex expression 
of our spiritual nature. Without them life itself 
would be inane and barren of opportunity or 
results. 

To desire an easy life, to pray " lead us not into 
temptation," is to ask that our schoolbooks should 
be taken away, that we may spend the hours in 
sleep. It would take us out of the objective into 
the subjective state, and defeat the very purpose of 
existence. Every playground and athletic field 
shows the importance of this principle. 

Upon the other hand, disease is often caused by 
an unwise resistance, which may be conscious or 
unconscious. The fall of a drunken man is usually 
harmless, though it might easily result in broken 
bones if he could rally his muscular and nervous 
forces to resist. It is well known to every acro- 
bat that one who falls without rigidity will seldom 
suffer. We too often pride ourselves on that which 
we ought really to let go. Egotism results in a 
nervous irritation, which is the resistance of pride. 

The vital currents will not fail to flow through 
us when we have removed the hindrance of our 
selfish thoughts. 

It is the yielding of the southern forests to the 
tropical storm that saves them from destruction. 



n 



It is from our own idea that life must be a 
"struggle" that we suffer most. The antidote is 
peace. It comes with the confidence that all 
is well. 

He who would get, must give. He who would 
learn, should teach. He who would rule, should 
know that the highest sovereignty is gained 
through service. Perfect peace is perfect power. 

If we could only understand that at every point 
of our lives "all is good," we could find no excuse 
for anxiety. 

It is always our atheism, or distrust of good, 
which is responsible for our trouble. Let us be 
honest, and not say ''we believe in God," while the 
fear of evil is upon us ; but let us confess that we 
do not believe in God, and admit that that is the 
whole cause of our distress. 

Why should we so often in our fearfulness take 
only a half loaf of truth rather than recognize the 
complete and radical statement of a principle fol- 
lowed to its logical conclusions, and offering a 
substantial stepping-stone to higher planes of 
thought and action } 



XV. 

CHRISTIAN ATHEISM. 

We will learn one day that our own orbit is all our task, 
and we need not assist the administration of the universe. — 
Emerson. 

God is sufficient to all mankind. No one is 
ever dependent for his highest good or happiness 
upon a fellow mortal. Each and every life is truly- 
independent, whatever may be its seeming. The 
highest duty of each is self-development, through 
service, but not "sacrifice." We can trust our 
children and friends to God, and unfold our own 
lives to their highest possibilities, following the 
laws of growth and being we see in tree and flower. 

^'Love is the fulfilling of the law." What is the 
law.^ Emphasize God and you easily lose sight of 
the mortal. Emphasize the mortal and you are apt 
to lose sight of God. Do not flatter yourself that 
you are the only agent for God's special work. He 
has a thousand in reserve; and if you fail to appre- 
ciate the privilege of the service, his work will not 
fail, only it will be your loss of opportunity, not 
God's or that of others. The law of all true service 
is self -development, and can never hinder, or cripple, 
or obstruct. You are never called to service that 
brings such results as these, and should refuse and 



17 

deny any "duty" or environment that has this ten- 
dency. God's service never requires loss of spir- 
itual enjoyment, or sacrifice of self-development. 
Do not be afraid of "self-seeking" on the highest 
lines, for when you have found self you have found 
God, and fulfilled the very highest law of being. It 
is only when in harmony with this law that we are 
really "useful." God's service is too often thought 
to be a matter of bustling endeavor and material 
"doing" or "denying" on the material plane. The 
flower fulfills its highest mission in perfecting its 
fragrance, and leaves it to God's winds to scatter 
its odors. Even the scents, colors, and honey of 
flowers, which we have somewhat ostentatiously 
assumed were provided for the delight of mankind, 
appear now to be primarily evolved from the plant 
for its own distinct benefit, and for the purpose of 
attracting those insects which would best accom- 
plish its fertilization. 

We do not realize, as Emerson says, that "char- 
acter teaches above our will," that if we would listen 
we could often hear the voice of nature saying to 
us in our burdened hours of artificial responsi- 
bilities, "So hot, my little sir!" When we remem- 
ber God we wait and listen, and are confident in 
the love that notes the fall of every sparrow. We 
know that Divine intelligence is never blind, that 
Divine power has no moments of weakness, and 
that Divine love is the mainspring of the universe. 



78 

If we believe that God governs our own lives, why 
cannot we believe that he governs equally those of 
our friends and children, however they may appear 
to us for the moment? Why should we disturb 
ourselves? Let us honestly admit that no distress 
can vibrate in a mind that is filled with God's 
harmonies, a mind that is persuaded that God is 
neither blind, nor deaf, nor powerless, nor failing 
in love. 

Let us, then, attend more carefully to our own 
flower beds, and not intrude so often into those of 
our neighbor, even though that neighbor be a mem- 
ber of our family, and we see that he is neglecting 
his borders, and that his plants are wilting for want 
of proper culture. He, too, is a chancery ward, like 
ourselves, of the Universal courts, and his estates 
will not be wasted. He, too, is a pupil of the Uni- 
versal Gardener, and freedom to do wrong is just 
as essential in nature's school as the freedom to do 
right. The world suffers much today, especially 
in its family and church life, from the despotism of 
mistaken kindness, insisting upon the use of its 
own methods, and secretly applauding itself for its 
foolish anxieties concerning the welfare of others. 
This is "Christian atheism," and it has many dis- 
ciples who suffer from a daily bondage to mistaken 
duty, and oppress their loved ones through an un- 
discerning sympathy which forgets that God is still 
at the head of the universe, and insists upon tyran- 



79 

nizing and worrying themselves and others '* in his 
name." We forget the eternal equities. No life 
can become a "victim " to another, else God does 
not govern absolutely. Yet we claim the supreme 
government is universal, and extends to all worlds 
and all times. Indeed, if we cannot believe that 
God governs in this world and at the present time 
in every life, what assurance have we of such gov- 
ernment elsewhere, or at any future time ^ Let us 
be reasonable and accept all logical issues. If God 
governs, we may be strong and confident in that 
knowledge, whether we interpret God as a person 
or law. If such government cannot be demon- 
strated, let us at least be consistent and honest in 
our atheism, and not masquerade as "Christians" 
with the beliefs of "Atheists." 

Another very common form of atheism is a dis- 
trust of self, a want of confidence in the inner 
voice of one's - own intelligence — which is God 
within — and in one's own forces, which are but 
the expression of the Infinite. If God is without, 
he is equally within, else he does not fill all being. 
To doubt the God outside of one's self has been 
always called "atheism," and self -distrust has been 
considered a virtue. Yet how illogical is this posi- 
tion. " Self-trust is the essence of heroism," says 
Emerson. It is also the essence of theism. Jesus 
says, "Enter into thy closet and shut the door." 
How strangely is this explained by our latest dis- 



8o 



covery in science ! When we wish to communicate 
with friends by the telephone we enter into the 
closet and shut the door, and operate from our 
centres, without effort, and the voice goes afar to 
illimitable distances. Yet we might stand outside 
and cry ourselves hoarse; our voices never would 
be heard. Let us find God within ourselves, and 
we can then discern him in all outer life. Let us 
trust our own intelligence to guide us, and our 
powers to fulfill our purpose, knowing that in these 
is the law of the universal manifested to just that 
extent to which we open our minds for illumination 
and let the Divine work through us. 



8i 



The test of courage can be made only in the 
presence of danger. Muscular strength and agility 
are developed in the gymnasium through weighting 
the pulleys and raising the vaulting-bars, thus pro- 
viding gradually severer conditions of resistance 
which must be overcome. Spiritual forces follow 
the same law and require real difficulties for their 
development, — difficulties in which we are deprived 
of usual supports and material resources. Otherwise 
there could be no danger to test our courage and 
principles; no conditions affording opportunity for 
the highest development of spiritual faculties. 
Why, then, should we moan and whine over every 
uncomfortable situation that life brings to us.-* 
Why not recognize it as the necessary problem 
of the hour, which shows not the neglect, but the 
careful thoughtfulness of the God in whom we 
have claimed to put our trust, and who has made 
provision for every requirement in the spiritual 
gymnasium of life? 



XVI. 
THE LOGIC OF FAITH. 

All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a 
circuitous road thou canst have now if thou dost not refuse 
them to thyself. — Marcus Aurelius. 

Every act of our lives is an act of faith, based 
upon experience. 

We take food and drink into our mouths without 
thought of the process of nutrition, or understand- 
ing how waste tissue is restored. 

We take air into our lungs, though ignorant of 
the chemistry by which it will oxygenate the blood 
that supplies the arterial and veinous system. 

We fall forward as we walk, depending on our 
unconscious will and muscle to maintain our centre 
of gravity. We direct our steps to a distant point 
without anxiety lest our brain should become con- 
fused and fail to lead us back. 

As the jingle rhyme so quaintly puts it — 

My feet they take me through the house, 

They hoist me up the stair; 
I only have to steer them, 

And they take me everywhere. 

We fall asleep without concern, surrendering ail 
consciousness, and confident of a fresh awakening 
in the morning. 



83 

We need not fear to trust too much to God, 
when we are sure it is God we trust. Our only 
limitation is — like Peter's walking on the waves 
of Galilee — in our want of knowledge which is the 
basis of all true faith. When we cut a finger we 
know that nature begins at once her work of heal- 
ing, and the coagulated blood protects the newly 
forming tissue. The infallible law of attraction 
draws from the universal life every element re- 
quired to restore the flesh to soundness. 

Why cannot we as easily accept the truth that 
this same law governs our environment, and will 
just as surely bring us everything we need.-* 

In the case of the flesh wound, we know that our 
anxious thought can inflame the injured part and 
retard the cure. 

This, too, is true of our material conditions. Our 
worries never fail to hinder our prosperity, though 
we do not yet understand the law that operates to 
retard or hasten. 

We are just beginning to recognize as a scientific 
fact that '*all action is in mind." 

We have dealt mainly hitherto with the external 
expressions rather than with true causes. The 
science of thought has not been included in our 
studies. 

All our life as yet is "miracle." All its processes 
are complex and inexplicable. Who can pretend 
that it is otherwise .^ 



84 

The universal discontent is an admission that 
as individuals we have failed to understand and 
control its conditions. Where then is the intelli- 
gence that has controlled ? 

Are we ready to admit that life is governed by 
accident and is chaotic? Cannot we extend the 
faith of which we have such constant illustration in 
our relation to the body, to include the ** circum- 
stances" of our life as well. 

If we do the thing that lies at hand we cannot 
fail to find our place in the system of humanity. 

We will fulfill our destiny at every point. Life 
is an intelligent design. We may not yet see the 
right side of the pattern that is being woven. The 
looms seem often cruel. 

But as Emerson says, we lie in the lap of an 
immense intelligence, which makes us organs of 
its activity and receivers of its truth. 

Receptiveness must come before illumination. 

Activity will surely follow. 

We need only open our eyes to perceive the 
universal opulence. 

Confidence is better than courage. Knowledge 
leaves no place for hope or fear. 

Growth is realization. 



8s 



How can we talk of the need of "courage" in 
life if we have confidence in the sovereignty of an 
absolute good that is perfectly related to our in- 
dividual requirements ? 

Courage presupposes fear. Both courage and 
fear have lost their meaning when we have come to 
the true understanding of life. 

We simply know and are at peace. Our boat 
may be full of water, but we are sure it cannot 
sink ; and we can even sleep on the tossing waves 
— like him of Galilee. 



XVII. 
HIDDEN TREASURES. 

Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and 
cease to be whirled around. — Marcus Aur alius. 

Plato claimed that all knowledge was reminis- 
cence. 

It is a curious fact that the universal belief of 
the world anticipates in the next stage of existence 
a complete provision for all individual wants, with- 
out the employment of mechanical aids. 

Why this entire confidence in the ultimate power 
of spirit ? 

May it not be an intuitive recognition through 
unconscious remembrance of the innate spiritual 
forces } 

If these forces are latent, is there any reason to 
postpone their development.'* 

Why should we marvel at our mechanical dis- 
coveries as evidence of progress .-* If we possess 
this spiritual power, it is only our blindness that 
makes mechanics necessary as a makeshift. 

When a man has his eyes open he does not need 
a cane to find the road. When he has learned to 
walk he does not want a crutch. 

All progress in mechanics is toward simplicity. 
The last discovery brings us always to the revela- 



87 

tion of our own interior powers, and makes the 
coarser instrument a superfluity. 

Telepathy dispenses with the wires and batteries 
of telephone and telegraph and all the cumbrous 
organization of the post office department. Psy- 
chometry does not require telescope or microscope 
or chemists' crucible for its analyses, which are far 
more complete and accurate than our laboratories 
or encyclopaedias can furnish. The X-rays revolu- 
tionize our theories of solids, but clairvoyance and 
clairaudience are more useful and important facts. 

In mature years we do not pride ourselves and 
congratulate each other upon the production of a 
new primer. We no longer find the primer neces- 
sary. We can read without its help. We have 
learned to write. Our vocabulary has been in- 
creased to many thousands of words, and we coin 
new ones for more advanced requirements. 

Why then should we linger so long in spiritual 
kindergartens ? 

Let us recognize our latent powers and boldly 
devote ourselves to their unfoldment and use. 

The average man gives far too much time to 
the artificial demands of his personality, to the 
supply of his imaginary wants, to the maintenance 
of his so-called '^self-respect." 

Much more could be accomplished if this absorb- 
ing thought could be demagnetized and reversed 
and turned into spiritual and universal channels. 



88 



The swimmer sinks when his thoughts are too 
intensely directed upon himself. When he remem- 
bers the buoyancy of the ocean under him, instead 
of its depths, when he fixes his eye upon the head- 
land beyond with confidence in his own wind and 
muscle, he finds his skill sufficient to propel him 
easily in the direction of the shore, and he moves 
fearlessly forward. 

We cannot demand too much from our spiritual 
forces. 

There are inexhaustible storage batteries in every 
human being. 

Nature has endowed us with incalculable riches. 

It is our own choice if we masquerade as 
paupers. 

Each has his private treasure house. We have 
only to clean our windows and let in the light, to 
disclose the rare value of our spiritual gems. 

All the magic treasures of the Arabian Nights 
tales are but feeble types of our own latent powers. 
But let us not mistake psychism for spiritual 
development. 

The lesser is included in the greater. 



89 



Recognition and appropriation are the keys to 
an inexhaustible treasury. 

Will we never learn that ''in good we live and 
move and have our Being"? 

We lose much through our timidity. 

Truth can work us no harm, and the soul is not 
easily deceived. 

Good never results in sorrow. There is no pang 
from the cradle to the grave in the life of any hu- 
man being of which the cause is really outside 
himself. 

Life should be as simple and easy to us all as it 
is to the tree or flower. Can we imagine growing 
pains in plants ? " Consider the lily, how it grows. 
It toils not, neither does it spin." 

Why must we crucify ourselves and one an- 
other ? Why talk continually of life as a "con- 
flict" or a "pilgrimage." 

If all things work together for good, why should 
we fear lest the law fail of operation at some mo- 
ment of our lives that we regard as critical ? 

Shall we trust it only as far as we can see, and 
be thus governed by the judgment of the senses ? 



XVIII. 
ANTIDOTES TO WORRY. 

It is only the finite that has wrought and suffered, the 
Infinite lies stretched in smiling repose. — Ejnerson. 

Our lessons of today are in the present tense of 
the verbs to be, to do, to have, to know. We 
must not turn back to the lessons of yesterday, or 
forward to those of tomorrow. We are not study- 
ing to say ''I shall be well," ''I shall be opulent," 
"I shall have," '*I shall know." To realize these 
things we must insist upon the present tense, ''I 
am," "I have," 'T know." 

The roll is called for recitation. Come now. 
We do not flinch or ask for longer time to prepare 
our lesson. We have already learned that ''all is 
good." Yes, that was the first page of our primers. 
Listen to us then, as we roll out these grand, true, 
positive assertions: — 

"I am well." 

"I am opulent." 

"I have everything." 

"I do right." 

"I know." 

There, now we are deaf to our fears, to the 
nerves that clamor, to the bank book that has 
bullied us with its petty balances so long. We 



9t 

prove truth by first accepting principles, precisely 
as we work in mathematics and in chemistry. 
We look with never wavering confidence for the 
results to which our poor old fears are always blind. 
Is this fanaticism.? Then there is a rapidly in- 
creasing brotherhood of fanatics who began this 
way and are today radiant with health and success. 
Their first doses of truth, perhaps, were in hypo- 
dermic injections; but they killed the microbes of 
fear and changed the entire circulation of the 
blood. 

Oh! if we could have a ''worry club," a ''worry 
trust," a syndicate that would enable us to barter 
and exchange our private worriments in a good 
buoyant market. 

We can endure quite calmly other people's 
troubles, and show a beautiful fortitude and resig- 
nation to them. They do not hurt so much as 
ours because we do not pack them so closely or 
bind them so carefully to our shoulders. We 
carry them easily, in fact, because they don't be- 
long to us through sympathetic vibration. 

Now, can't we reach the same position in relation 
to those we call our own ? Can't we get quite out- 
side of them, and insist they don't belong to us at 
all.'* They certainly do not if we are free, and if 
we are not free, it is because we have not yet got 
through the alphabet of Mental Science. 

It wouldn't make a bit of difference to the aver- 



92 

age man to be loosened from his worries by an 
emancipation proclamation, unless he issued it him- 
self. If his troubles could drop off without a 
change of thought today, they surely would fly 
back again tomorrow, as promptly as the filings to 
the magnet. We are beginning to call this now 
the "vibratory law," the law of attraction. It 
absolutely governs life. 

But if we can't get up a ''worry syndicate," we 
can at least organize an "anti-worry club," on the 
lines of prohibition work, to legislate against the 
indulgence of anxiety. We will not depend on 
numbers for success. A membership of one is 
quite sufficient. Two in some cases will be better, 
and possibly four or five, if there are so many in 
the family. The fines and penalties should be 
severe, and might be devoted to the purchase of 
breezy literature that would assist "the cause" and 
forward the objects of the club. 

There should be no tenderness shown to default- 
ing members; for worry is a disease that needs 
heroic remedies. We must be as merciless to our 
worries as to Canada thistles. It might be well 
even to offer bounties for their extermination. We 
must radiate an atmosphere in which they cannot 
live. If we do not master them, they will certainly 
master us. 

If worry is not driven out of the blood, it is 
surely fatal and "only a matter of time." "Killed 



93 

by worry," would be a truthful epitaph over multi- 
tudes of graves. It is not heroic to die by worry; 
it is Christian suicide. 



All trouble in life comes from a distorted per- 
spective, together with too much foreshortening. 
If we could at all times see things in their proper 
relations to time and distance, we could never 
suffer unhappiness. It is only when we magnify 
and exaggerate some line or shadow of our life that 
we create fear and worry. We allow ourselves to 
become too intensely interested in the immediate 
issue, or focalize with too strong a lens upon the 
future more or less remote. 



94 

It is a curious fact that any advance in spiritual 
knowledge is usually followed by a fresh test of 
trying experience, — suggesting the "term exam- 
ination " of the schools. If this test is fully met 
the student finds himself in possession of new 
forces, and passes on to further illumination, but 
otherwise the old lessons are continued. 

Dame Nature is a wise teacher and never allows 
us to leave a task until it has been learned. But 
on the other hand, we may be sure no troublesome 
experience will last a day longer than is necessary 
for us to find and recognize its lesson. And then 
the page is turned. So let us waste no time in the 
sentimentalism of self-pity, but search with earnest 
purpose for the meaning of the hour, responding 
boldly to its challenge. 

We are slow to understand the importance of 
learning to depend entirely upon the within and 
the now. The slightest deviation from this prin- 
ciple of self-reliance impairs our perceptions and 
scatters our forces. It places us outside the har- 
mony of the spiritual law which governs our being. 
We must not depend upon other intelligence than 
our own. We must not postpone results. Ab- 
solute confidence in the wisdom and power of the 
good within us is necessary to the attainment of 
our purposes. 



XIX. 
MENTAL MICROBES. 

It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never 
intentionally given pain even to another. — Marcus Aurelius. 

Small annoyances are the seeds of disease. We 
cannot afford to entertain them. They are the 
bacteria, — the germs that make serious disturbance 
in the system, and prepare the way for all derange- 
ments. They furnish the mental conditions which 
are manifested later in the blood, the tissues, and 
the organs, under various pathological names. 

Good thoughts are the only germicide. We 
must kill out resentment and regret, impatience 
and anxiety. Health will inevitably follow. 

Every thought that holds us in even the slightest 
degree to either anticipation or regret hinders, to 
some extent, the realization of our present good. 
It limits freedom. 

Life is in the present tense. Its significant 
name is "Being." 

A normal nature does not need the stimulus of 
hope. "Hope" and "try" are words that drop 
away from us when we have got to spelling in two 
syllables. They are like milestones on a mountain 
road that mark the point to which we have climbed. 
When we have reached a higher outlook, we say 
"I know," "I do." 



96 

We no longer waver in our purpose. We do 
not believe it necessary to vibrate between hope 
and fear, effort and failure. We are not searching 
for the unknown quantity in the algebra of life, — 
the '^x'' which stood for happiness, success, and 
health in our experimental days. We work now 
with more positive propositions, and know that in 
our problems there is no doubt of the results. We 
enjoy the happiness the moment brings us, whether 
we are in sun or shadow to other eyes. 

Our vision is open to the changing lights of sun- 
rise, noon, and sunset, night and morning. All 
have beauties of their own. When we have ad- 
justed the sounding-board and mirror of the mind, 
the scales of tone and color bring us inexhaustible 
harmonies. 

Sympathetic vibration is the key of life. Every 
experience is limited by its responsive chords. 
Nothing can reach us from without, except as it 
awakens vibration within. This is equally true of 
joy and sorrow. 

We often fail to value our little difficulties truly. 
We cannot overestimate their usefulness in the 
practical application of principles. We cannot 
learn to read if we neglect the primer. We can- 
not build till we have laid foundation stones. We 
add to our foundations every time we meet a little 
difficulty well. This is the way to fit ourselves for 
larger work in the emergencies and opportunities 



97 

of life. Let us overcome vexation of all kinds. 
Let us be always tranquil and serene in every 
provocation. It is possible to the great soul. 

None is ready for the higher outlook till this 
triumph of principle has been achieved. 

Ponderous and marvelous machinery is some- 
times thrown out of gear by small obstructions. 
Express trains can be easily derailed. Either the 
obstruction is demolished, the obstacle is brushed 
aside, or great disaster follows. 

Every unpleasant thought must be immediately 
crushed out and thrown away. We cannot permit 
it to produce a mental jar, or interrupt our spiritual 
progress. It is the test of spiritual will. 

Passive resentment to people and events is per- 
haps more subtle and injurious than open protest. 
We do not require resignation; that is only a 
masked vice. We want cheerful and bold accept- 
ance of the problem. By this alone will we ever 
overcome and prepare the pleasanter conditions we 
desire. 

Let us learn to actually forget an injury. It is 
the only true forgiveness. To forgive is to forego, 
and to forego includes forgetfulness. In the same 
way we must forget all trouble. Our recollections 
cause our mental inflammations and congestions. 
Real forgiveness does not assert, *'I can never 
forget." 



98 

Regret is self -resentment. When we have come 
to maturity we do not grieve over the blots and 
crooked pothooks in our copy-books. When we 
were learning to write, they may have caused us 
many tears. Regrets would fade as we grow if we 
did not weave them into a hair shirt to wear against 
our skin. 

Nature is quick to wipe out all unpleasant sen- 
sations and retain only what is agreeable in life. 
Our penances are self-imposed ; we gain from them 
a certain selfish gratification. They turn our 
thoughts inward and backward, when we ought 
to turn them outward and concentrate them upon 
the present. 

All fear includes resentment ; we resent what we 
fear, and will discover it in an honest analysis. 
Perfect love will cast it out. Regret and resent- 
ment bind upon us heavy burdens, from which we 
should cut loose. 

Forgetfulness is the chief remedy we need for 
most of our diseases. It is a cleansing medicine 
for the blood. The links of memory compose the 
chain that fastens to us the disease from which we 
suffer. ^ When we have cast off the remembrance 
of our troubles, we are no longer distressed by the 
power of association. Resentment and regret have 
vanished; the congestion and inflammation have 
disappeared ; the cramps are gone. A new life and 
buoyancy have come to us, such as we have not 



99 

felt for many a day. We find ourselves surprisingly 
light-hearted. The sunshine has grown brighter 
and the air clearer. We are glad we are alive. 
The only change has been in our emancipation 
from resentment and regret. 

We overlook the dangers of annoyance, — morti- 
fication, disappointment, indignation; as long as 
these impulses tincture our mnnd to the slightest 
degree we suffer unrest and fear. We dwell too 
much upon the thought of consequences, — ''What 
will be the result of this act, this word, this letter.?" 
How will it be regarded. 

We forget that if our purpose is truly wise and 
righteous, its fruit must be eventually good in 
the nature of things. Let us stoutly refuse to 
be alarmed, though the whole world should dis- 
approve. Let us trust the soul's intelligence. The 
good within us is our judge. Perfect peace is 
the touchstone of true living, and it abides with 
those whose minds are ''^stayed on good'' 



100 



In astrology we often hear of "good" and "evil" 
days, — of "benefic" and "malefic" influences. In 
every-day life we easily fall into the habit of look- 
ing forward to "better things." If one day, or one 
event, or one place could be better for us than 
another, does it not follow logically that God is 
changeable, and does not govern our lives at all 
times and places with equal wisdom, but that 
"accident" and "mischance" intervene, which are 
beyond either his power or desire to prevent ? If 
this be true we cannot depend always upon God, 
for other influences exist which are stronger than 
he. If, on the other hand, we admit that God is 
love, it follows of necessity that all is good, if we 
include also a belief in the absolute sovereignty of 
God. Everything that Supreme Love can devise 
and accomplish for its creatures is being fulfilled 
in every life at every instant of its existence. May 
we not, then, safely claim that nothing can limit 
the good that comes to us except our own lack of 
recognition } 



XX. 

THE FOLLY OF RESENTMENT. 

It has been wisely said, " There are no penalties 
to virtue." 

If we suffer through another, it must be because 
of some responsive chord within ourselves which is 
not well attuned. The suffering is nature's signal 
bell. If we are bruised, there must be some sore 
spots that need attention, not as the result of our 
fancied injury but its real cause. 

When we are spiritually sound, no thought, or 
word, or act of another can arouse vibrations of 
pain. 

Nature's work is not so incomplete. It cushions 
us against all suffering from without and responds 
only when kindred chords are touched in the same 
key. We have absolute control of our own instru- 
ment, its harmonies and discords. 

The same law that protects us from needless 
suffering, produces in us the reaction of every evil 
thought directed toward another. 

When we strike a surface that is harder than our 
tool, the reaction makes our nerves tingle. We get 
no satisfaction in hammering material in which 
there is no responsive vibration. 

When we direct an unkind thought upon another 



102 

and it finds no lodgement, the whole force of it 
returns immediately upon ourselves, while the other 
is unhurt. 

Every thought that is not in harmony with the 
law of love must surely be expiated with much 
suffering by the thinker. 

There can be no evasion of this law and no 
vicarious atonement possible. We could not learn 
our lessons through the experience of another. 
Life is a patient creditor, but is inexorably just in 
its exactions. Cannot we see the folly of all in- 
dulgence in malice and resentment, which can only 
poison our own lives and bring suffering to our- 
selves ? 

Is not the unerring operation of this law a com- 
plete guarantee of the ultimate salvation of all 
mankind ? 

A sane man will never persist in perpetual 
bankruptcy. We do not find any satisfaction in 
self-torture when it does not even bring us sym- 
pathy. 

We need not punish ourselves with ''righteous 
indignation." It is a popular delusion. No indig- 
nation can be righteous. "The ways of wisdom 
are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are 
peace." 



103 



Congestion and inflammation are not possible 
where there is a truly loving spirit. 

Such symptoms indicate deficiency in circulation, 
due to the irritation of some fear. 

Fear cannot exist where there is the confidence 
of perfect love. 

None can bestow upon us and none can draw 
from us except according to the spiritual law of 
our own centres. This is always seeking to estab- 
lish equilibrium of forces. 

We receive through giving and not through self- 
seeking. Relax the selfish thought, and the trouble 
disappears. 



XXL 
EMOTIONAL BANKRUPTCY. 

The soul is raised over passion; 
It seeth identity and eternal causation ; 
It is a perceiving that Truth and Right are. 
Hence it becomes a tranquillity out of the knowing that all 
things go well. — Emerson. 

We find many in middle life who are positively 
bankrupt in the emotions. They have lived on 
the emotional plane rather than the spiritual. 
They have mistaken feeling for principle, and in- 
dulged it to exhaustion. Their natures are barren 
and stagnant in consequence. 

The spiritual pulse should be as regular as the 
heart-beat. It is only the fevered and abnormal 
condition that produces an irregular pulsation. It 
is a sign of disease, and not of health. Ecstasy 
is hysteria and catalepsy. It is often mistaken for 
spiritual exaltation. The sufferer secretly prides 
himself upon his sensitiveness, and his "deeply 
religious nature." 

If we live in the sunlight we are not depressed 
by every cloud that floats across the sky. If we 
live in the light of truth we are not disturbed by 
the shadows of error, nor surprised and excited 
by the progress of righteousness. In these we 



105 

recognize the steady course of evolution as plainly 
as the movements of the planets in their orbits. 
We are confident and calm. 

Emotion is a will-o'-the-wisp. It leads us into the 
lowlands and mires us in the swamps of feeling. 
It is purely sensual, and lacks spiritual principle. 
It alternates between elation and depression. 

We should distrust all religious influence or 
sentiment that has no basis of real knowledge, — 
that which says: ''I don't know why I believe, but 
I feel that I am right." True faith must be built 
upon foundations of knowledge and experience. 

We cannot have faith in any person without a 
reason proceeding from the person himself. It 
is only as we know God that we can believe in 
God, but the revelation comes to us from within 
and without in all the life about us. 

Apathy and ecstasy are alike untrue. We do 
not go into hysteria over the sun, — do not applaud 
its rising or weep at its setting. We know that 
night and day will surely alternate, and that they 
are alike good. Let us have equal confidence in 
being. Let us be sure of every moment of exist- 
ence, knowing that all is well, whether to our eyes 
there be twilight or sunlight, black darkness or 
perfect day. 

We need not mistake our ideality for complete 
truth, but must beware of emotion and distrust 
feeling. Doubtless, most of the religions of the 



io6 



world appeal more powerfully to the emotions than 
to reason, which is, perhaps, the explanation of the 
fact that their following is so largely among the 
emotional sex. 

Hysteria with men manifests itself in business, 
in their booms and panics, and political conven- 
tions. We talk of *' emotional insanity;" there 
is also abundant evidence of emotional dishonesty. 

Let us put our emotions into the crucible of 
truth, — try them by its fires, and dare to examine 
the analysis. We may be sure there is no foun- 
dation for any "belief" we hold which we have 
not courage to submit to the most critical inves- 
tigation, or cannot state in honest language. 

No true man can preach or accept a faith 
which appeals only to the emotions. Much of the 
work of the pulpit and platform is mere hypnotism. 

If we are governed by our feelings, we are be- 
fogged in the realms of the unreal. 

We look too far afield for God. We do not need 
to take a telescope or microscope for what is closer 
than the nearest fellow creature, — nearer than the 
air we breathe, or the food we eat ; for we live in 
good. 



XXII. 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT. 

Now in the name of all the gods at once, upon what meat 
doth this, our Caesar, feed that he is grown so great? 

— Shakespeare. 

We are often told of late that "thoughts are 
things." This is only a partial statement. Thoughts 
are living entities. 

We may even bring them into the objective life, 
by proper and persistent concentration. 

It becomes, then, a vital question, " How shall 
thought be fed .^" What is its proper diet to pro- 
duce the best results t The matter of thought diet 
is of greater importance than we realize. 

Disease results from thought ; health is restored 
and established by thought. What best nourishes 
the largest life .'* Let us proceed to a study of 
mental diet. 

We will find that disease has a large menu, while 
the diet of health is simple and strong. 

Here is a list of some things that should be 
avoided in order to bring a sickly mind to a normal 
condition. We may find in it some items that are 
generally allowed, and have not usually been sus- 
pected of containing poisonous elements. 

We must immediately strike out from the bill of 



io8 



fare all unpleasant recollections, every memory of 
past struggle or weakness. 

It is better even to forget our victories. 

" True conquest is the causing the black event to fade 
and disappear as an early cloud of insignificant result in a 
history so large and advancing." 

Emerson is right. It is the highest ideal of life. 

We must avoid all emotions of regret, resent- 
ment, and self-pity. 

We must not indulge in self-congratulation. 

We must banish every sentiment of resignation, 
hope, anticipation, doubt, and fear. 

If we analyze these carefully we will discover 
that every one of them has fed our restless 
thoughts that have prolonged and nourished the 
disease against which we were struggling; they 
have subjected us to the alternations of elation and 
depression. These are the storm winds of emo- 
tional latitudes. They are found in our tropical, 
and not in our temperate, zones. 

We must sail out of them into the higher lati- 
tudes. We must establish ourselves in a sturdier 
life. We must reach the spiritual planes which are 
far beyond the emotional experience. 

To do this we must let the old thoughts die 
away, must kill them by starvation. 

The new thoughts thrive on different food. 
They have a different appetite, — normal and 
vigorous. 



109 

They demand knowledge of good, and not of 
evil. They have no interest in pathology or the 
dissecting room. 

Knowledge brings confidence. 

We are glad and strong in the life of today in 
consequence of learning that ''the soul becomes a 
tranquillity out of the knowing that all things go 
well." 



no 



We make too much of our faults arid failures. 
We take ourselves too seriously. We suffer need- 
less pangs of disappointment and discouragement. 

If we have failed, let us scramble to our feet, 
and not spend time on our bruises and bandages. 
Bruises do not heal by looking at them. We are 
still too keenly alive to the troubles of the past, 
and cherish its resentments, though perhaps uncon- 
sciously. 

It is no wonder that the previous chapters of our 
book of life were closed to us at birth. We are 
not handicapped with the recollection of all that 
went before in our long rounds of evolution. 

Let us cultivate forgetfulness as a fine art. Let 
us lift up our eyes with confidence to the hills, to 
the heights of our better nature, which is thor- 
oughly equipped for all our times of need. 



XXIII. 

SYMPATHY AS A VICE. 

We come to them who weep foolishly, and sit down and 
cry for company, instead of imparting to them truth and 
health in rough electric shocks, putting them once more in 
communication with the soul. — Emerson. 

It is a curious idea of friendship that demands 
attention to personal ills for the mere sake of in- 
dulgence in their recitation. How many there are 
who fill their conversation and their letters with the 
details of their weaknesses and troubles. It would 
be just as kind to pump the contents of their cess- 
pools into their neighbors' gardens. The very 
thought of illness and suffering is a depressing 
influence from which we should wish to deliver our 
friends rather than oppress them with it. It is no 
kinSness to permit one to turn such a thought upon 
us, only to provide him with the morbid satisfaction 
of rehearsing his difficulties. It does not stimulate 
to better things. It weakens the narrator, and 
etches his troubles more deeply into his own con- 
sciousness. Such sympathy is vicious and not 
helpful. We do not jump into a bog or quicksand 
to save one who is struggling there. We know 
that in order to help him out, we must keep our 
own feet on firm ground, and on the confident 
thought of rescue. 



112 

We believe the greatest kindness in the sick 
room is to disinfect the atmosphere. Sympathy, as 
generally understood and practised, feeds infection. 
Love demands the disinfectant of true thought, as 
well as kindly service. Sympathy is a poor tuning- 
fork. It does not strike the keynote of a harmony ; 
it only spreads the discord. 

Trouble is infectious and discordant. Nothing 
can correct it but strong, wholesome confidence in 
life, and self, and one another. To pule and whine 
in sympathy at the demand of a sick mind is not 
the office of a friend. 

A little mind always thinks its own trials are 
peculiar and demand a special recognition. This is 
nothing else than egotism. When one looks abroad 
he is sure to discover that he is not the only pupil 
in the class who has found difficult problems on 
his slate. It makes no difference that some of our 
classmates are dressed in better clothes, and have 
richer bindings on their school-books. Their prob- 
lems are just as hard as ours, and often very much 
the same. We will not envy them. 

Let us work faithfully at our tasks, give all the 
cheerful stimulus and help to others that they will 
accept, but firmly refuse to listen to the talk of 
trouble when we cannot aid. Let us decline cor- 
respondence with such friends as fill their letters 
with their sicknesses. Let us never write a line or 
word that needlessly suggests unhappy thought. 



113 

Let us take the black borders from our stationery, 
and gild our thoughts and words with love, and 
confidence, and knowledge in the realms of Eternal 
Good. 

We will not, then, mistake the vice of so-called 
sympathy for the virtue of encouragement, which 
brings always health and gladness as a welcome 
guest. 



We are not only like *' ships that pass in the 
night." We are like wandering breezes filling each 
other's sails. 

Our thoughts and words carry cheer and power 
that help others for a little way upon their voyage, 
or operate as contrary winds that tend to drive 
them off their course and make their navigation 
difficult. 



XXIV. 

THE SELFISHNESS OF SORROW. 

A son is dead. What then ? 

A son is dead. Nothing more ? Nothing. 

But Zeus does not order these things rightly. 

Why so ? Because it is permitted you, 

While you suffer them, to be happy. 

— Epictetus. 

We seldom read the resolutions of a Christian 
society upon the death of a member without find- 
ing such phrases as these: '*We mourn the loss," 
"we bow our heads/' ''we sorrow," ''we grieve." 

Yet Christians profess to believe that "to die is 
gain." They talk of "the glory of the immortal." 
They speak often of life as "a wilderness," and 
sing of "pilgrims through this barren land." 

Why, then, should they mourn when a beloved 
one has "gone home" to all the celestial glories 
which they picture in what they call "the other 
life".? 

Is the explanation found in skepticism or selfish- 
ness.'^ Do they really doubt the happiness of the 
heaven they have promised as a reward to the 
Christian believer, or are they so selfish as to forget 
the joys of the departed one in the temporary 
loneliness that has come to themselves } 

When our friends sail for a sojourn in foreign 



115 

iands, where we expect to join them after a brief 
separation, we do not break our hearts over the 
event. We dwell upon their great advantages of 
study, the delights of travel, the gladness of the 
new experience that lies before the voyager, and 
the joy of the reunion later. It does not occur to 
us to put on garments of woe, to darken our homes, 
to seclude ourselves from our friends, abandoning 
all our usual occupations, or engaging in them with 
sad thoughts and faces. That would appear to us 
absurd, and our civilized customs do not require it. 

When our loved one passes through the portal of 
death, if we really believe that he has stepped 
forward and upward, if we really think he 
has gone into a larger, brighter life than that of 
earth, and entered upon a career of more active 
usefulness and increased happiness, we surely 
cannot sorrow for him as those who have no 
hope. 

What, then, is the root of the grief we are so 
ready to manifest in the presence of death ? Is it 
not found altogether in self pity f and what is that 
but the disease of selfishness? 

Are we willing to accept the alternative and 
admit that we do not quite believe in immortality 
or think that there is any gain in dying, — notwith- 
standing our prof essions, — and thus stand confessed 
as hypocrites.? 

Perhaps we answer that we are persuaded of the 



ii6 



gain to the departed one, but that the event to us 
is one of loss, irreparable loss. 

Have we, then, so small an ideal God as 
seriously to believe that the good of any human 
being must be purchased by the sacrifice of 
another ? 

Surely such a definition would justify the atheist. 

Or will we honestly admit that death can be no 
evil, if it brings the recognition of a larger life to 
both.'' and will we renew our assurance that all 
things work together for good, whether or not we 
can solve on the instant every problem in spiritual 
arithmetic .'' 

If we have reached this point, and freely ac- 
cepted this proposition as a principle of life, we 
shall go on our way rejoicing because of our great 
love, and know that death can bring no loss to us 
or to our friend. 

"Love can never lose its own." In the kingdom 
of "good there are no mourners. The seen and the 
unseen are alike within that kingdom. 

If every star and planet is held true to its orbit, 
can there be danger that any human life will miss 
its course.-* Can death be premature if life is 
governed by absolute law } 

Are we quite sure of the right rendering of that 
passage in the burial service, " For this corruptible 
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put 
on immortality " ? i 



n; 

We have no good reason to think that death in 
itself brings ns anything more than hfe, — of which 
it is an incident; but we find that in the change, 
which is altogether chemical, we put off the old 
mortality and the material corruption. 

Let us, then, be glad of the new day, when it 
dawns upon us or upon our best beloved, and wish 
with Tennyson that there ''may be no moaning 
of the bar," when we ''put out to sea." 

And let us do away with graves, — in memory 
and in reality. We need not dwell upon the shady 
side of Sorrow Lane. 



We are not dependent for the sunlight on the 
other planets in our system; nor on the interplane- 
tary spaces. 

It radiates from the grand central orb itself, — 
the sun of the entire system. 

We are not dependent for our cheer and happi- 
ness on our surroundings; nor on any individual 
outside ourselves. 

Each has within himself a complete planetary 
system, of which his own spiritual will is the vital- 
izing centre. 



XXV. 
THE GATES OF SORROW. 

AN EASTER WHISPER. 

Alas for him who never sees 

The stars shine through his cypress trees. 

— Whittier. 

We can truthfully say there is no such thing 
as a real trouble in the world. 

We are fighting shadows, — false appearances. 

A very shapely man will often cast a shadow 
that is Titanic and grotesque. The effect is the 
result of his relation to the light. "The shadow 
proves the presence of the sun." 

Our troubles have no more power than we our- 
selves ascribe to them. When looked at in the 
light of a true philosophy, they no longer seem 
distorted incidents of life, but fall into their proper 
places and proportions. 

We discern our real relation to them and find 
their cause and consequence. Every one of them 
has a lesson for us. We should receive and wel- 
come it. 

Kings' messengers are often splashed and stained ; 
and oftenest when they have ridden fast and hard 
as bearers of important tidings. 



119 

Our troubles are not sightly when they stand be- 
fore us. But they can always bring us tidings of 
great joy, revealing to us spiritual treasures that have 
been hidden ; awakening in us a sense of power and 
freedom we had never suspected possible, provided 
we receive them rightly, and boldly demand their 
message. 

We learn these interpretations by looking into 
graves, — the graves of loved ones dearer than life; 
by going down ourselves into the valley of the 
shadow; by walking among the cypress trees that 
grow above the tombs of dead ambitions, broken 
purposes and disappointed hopes. 

When we look up again we see the stars of 
morning shining through the evergreens, and 
presently the day breaks and the shadows flee 
away. 

We walk out of our cemeteries into the open 
and find again green pastures and still waters, with 
the bright blue skies above us, and the fresh, sweet 
breezes stirring all our pulses to new vigor. Then 
we know that life is not a failure. We are truly 
conquerors. 

Nature is quick to hide her scars. The grass 
springs up on all her battlefields. She turns her 
volcanoes into flower gardens. 

No alpine valley is more beautiful, no soil more 
fruitful than that of the extinct crater, clothed 
with forests and vineyards. 



126 

When we consider the lily Aow it grows, we may 
often find another lesson in the where it grows. 

No life need abide in the shadows. 

The garments of woe do not belong to us when 
we have seen ourselves as gods. 

Our crumbled sorrows should prove the richest 
soil for fragrant flowers and refreshing fruit. 

The finest wheat and most delicious grapes 
spring from the pulverized lava that once scorched 
the mountain side and killed all vegetation in the 
hour of eruption. 

O troubled spirit! let the sunlight and the 
showers come to you; let the soft winds of heaven 
comfort you; and you will some day find that your 
richest harvests have been grown from the soil of 
the years that you thought blasted. 

So we are thankful for the shadows we have 
called our sorrows. 

They curtained the gates of gold beyond the 
"Via Dolorosa." through which we passed to larger 
understanding. In the light of the new day they 
stand revealed and open. 

"Weeping may endure for a night; but joy 
Cometh in the morning." 



121 



We fear to trust our wings. We plume and 
flutter them, but dare not throw our weight upon 
them. We cHng too often to the perch, arid excuse 
our timidity by saying we are chained by '' circum- 
stances." Yet there is the great, buoyant atmos- 
phere enfolding us, and we are provided with 
strong spiritual pinions fitting us to float in it. 
Courage is all we lack. 

Be like the bird that, pausing in its flight 
Awhile on bough too light, 
Feels it give way beneath it, and yet sings, 
Knowing that it hath wings. 

— Hugo. 



XXVI. 

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE. 

He who is immersed in what concerns person or place 
cannot see the problem of existence. — Emerson. 

We have heard much of the "conflict " between 
science and religion. 

There can be no inharmony between true science 
and true religion. 

The conflict is always between '^ sciolism" (or 
false science) and religion, or between science and 
** superstition," which is false religion. 

There is no such thing as "religion" or "sci- 
ence" taken separately. 

Science is true knowledge. All true knowledge 
is divine, and relates us to the infinite through the 
understanding. 

Consequently all true science comprehends re- 
ligion, and genuine religion must be scientific. 

There is no philosophy or creed without a plank 
of truth in it ; no science or religion that is alto- 
gether false. 

Our theories may be wrecked upon the shoals of 
error; but like Paul and his companions on their 
eventful voyage, it will come to pass that we will 
find some boards and broken pieces of the ship on 
which we will all escape safely to land. 



123 

There can be no antagonism between spirit and 
matter. 

If we find in matter the manifestation of spirit, 
we can surely have no quarrel with it. 

The '' conflict " of life resolves itself into the 
problem of life. 

The sculptor does not despise the clay or marble 
which he moulds or chisels into form. He does 
not resent the fact that it is necessary for him to 
spend his time and effort in the work. 

It is his chosen art, and the materials he uses 
are those that are best adapted to his purpose. 

The ** conflict" we experience is between mind 
and matter, when the mind has been misled by false 
instruction to regard matter as its natural foe. 

Or it may be between spirit and sensuality, when 
the senses rebel at the dominion of the spirit. 

This is the cause of all disease, and the house 
falls because it is divided against itself. 

Harmony of all our functions can result only in 
health. 

The attempt at strangulation will bring always 
conflict and disease. Symmetry is perfect and 
abounding life upon all planes of our being. 

One may have an educated mind without a lib- 
eral spirit. 

Our virtues manifest on the different planes of 
humanity with varied appearances and results. 

What is a virtue upon one plane may be a vice 
upon another. 



124 

No symmetry of character is possible until the 
physical, intellectual, and spiritual phases of our 
nature have been all recognized and harmonized. 

Until that point is reached we cannot be well 
poised or centred, and are not accepted sovereigns 
in our own domains. 

The unfoldment of mankind is through the car- 
nal mind and mortal body, its material expression, — 
the psychic mind and astral body which obeys it, 
and the spiritual mind of our true ego with the 
spiritual body which incorporates it, and of which 
all else is but imperfect manifestation of the great 
central force. 

The majority of the race knows nothing beyond 
the material or animal plane. A few have dis- 
covered the existence of the psychic, and remain 
attached to its material phenomena. 

The truly awakened spirit seeks good as the chief 
aim of its being and enters upon the uplands of the 
highest wisdom, advancing toward an ever-receding 
and broadening horizon. 

All the impulses of nature are toward righteous- 
ness. 

No right use of any faculty or organ can exhaust 
or weary. Life is inexhaustible. 

Health is harmonious vibration. It draws always 
through the negative in exact proportion as it ex- 
presses itself through the positive. 

If the feed pipes of a reservoir are not as large 



125 

as the outflow, the result is emptiness. If they are 
larger, it is congestion. 

When the positive and negative channels of our 
being are properly adjusted to one another, har- 
mony can be preserved and life perpetuated. 

When supply and demand are perfectly balanced, 
waste and repair are exactly maintained. The issue 
can be only life. 

Death has then become impossible. We cannot 
afford to neglect either pole of our activities. 

We must not stagnate in the intake or the 

OUtfloVvT. 

The anxious thought of the personal self closes 
the valves of receptivity and outward movement. 

These valves are automatic and most delicately 
adjusted. When either is closed, stagnation and 
death follow. 

A drop of blood is chemically the same in the 
foot as in the brain, and circulates through both. 
It is of as much importance in one place as an- 
other. It is desirable to walk as well as to think. 
The gait is the expression of the thought. 

We do not need to limit and strangle our senses. 
It is better to enlarge and extend them. We are 
only half alive, and yet there are those who insist 
that truth requires us to stultify and cripple our- 
selves further by asceticism, — to put out our eyes 
and stop our ears. This is the method of ig- 
norance, but never of enlightenment. It will not 



126 



succeed, as the external is but the expression of 
the interior life and has its perfect correspondence. 
Until an organ or a function is perfected it should 
not fall into permanent disuse. Higher forms are 
evolved through the perfection of the lower. It is 
the method of evolution. 

Heretofore we have classified as separate fac- 
tors of life "religion," "science," "business." We 
have made arbitrary definitions, which have always 
produced confusion and inharmony. We have been 
afraid of our chemicals ; we have not dared to bring 
them into close relations in our alembics. We 
have feared that religion would neutralize business 
and society, that there was no chemical affinity. 
"Business is business" has been the motto hung 
upon the walls of our laboratory of life. We 
have had no real knowledge of spiritual chemistry. 
Explosions in our retorts have been of frequent 
occurrence. 

We have now begun to study life in the science 
of thought, and from an entirely different stand- 
point. 

We have discovered new formulas of chemical 
analysis. We have found new properties in our 
acids and our alkalies. 

We have learned of solvents which make it pos- 
sible to unite the primates in fresh and powerful 
combinations. 

Love is the strongest solvent, the mightiest re- 
agent in the chemistry of life. 



12/ 

It neutralizes all resentment ; it clarifies the 
atmosphere of all malarial emotions ; it is the great 
deodorizer ; it is a divine ozone. 

None of us are above the foundations of our 
lives. Yet we sit down before our work and 
imagine ourselves the chosen architects of royal 
structures. 

We worship our ideal facade as if it were a tem- 
ple we had already built at the divine command. 

We are only stone masons after all as yet, and 
need to learn our trade and lay the stones of the 
foundation level and plumb. 

We must not despise the material conditions, or 
fancy that we have no longer any use for them. It 
is a common form of spiritual conceit. The fact 
that we find ourselves existing in a world of matter, 
in spite of all "denials," is sufficient evidence to a 
reasonable mind that it contains the elements we 
require at the present point of our development, 
and none of them are to be depreciated. 

The lotus flower (the spiritual symbol of the 
East) is rooted in the mud. It is quite as much 
indebted to the mud and water for its beauty as to 
the air and sunshine in which it blooms. We must 
not scorn the study of root culture, or neglect it 
in enthusiasm for the beauties of the orchid ; for 
though that exquisite flower is an air plant, it needs 
to attach itself to a sturdier growth that is rooted 
in the ground and draws its nourishment from the 



128 



soil to feed both itself and its parasite. The tree 
will outlive many seasons of orchids. 

Let us attend carefully to all the homely affairs 
of the present life, for therein will we find our spir- 
itual lessons. 

Defective physiology ought no longer to be mis- 
taken for spirituality. 

A good tree does not bring forth corrupt fruit. 
Until we h^NQ perfected owr material bodies, we have 
no reason to think we have outgrown the need of 
them ; until we have learned to be faithful over the 
few things, we must not deceive ourselves with 
the idea that we are chosen to be rulers over many 
things. 

We are threefold beings, functioning upon planes 
of material, mental, and spiritual activity. 

None of these activities need to be sacrificed to 
another. 

All should vibrate pleasantly together, else we 
can have no true holiness, no ''perfect peace." 

Health is the key to character. The converse 
of this is also true. Character is the key to health. 
It is a good rule, and works both ways. 

Name the disease, and a skillful mental healer 
can often diagnose the character. Give a truthful 
description of the character, and the healer can 
describe the disease which is most liable to mani- 
fest itself when the occasion is presented. 

Life is no tangle when we have come into the 
realization of principles. 



129 

Our lives are too often fragmentary; our 
thoughts and purposes are broken and uncertain. 
We do not sight our telescopes long enough on 
single truths and follow them boldly where they 
lead. Else we narrow the orbit of our instrument 
by shortening its leverage and contracting its base. 
We do not keep our lenses clean and clear. 

We lack steadiness and courage. We need to 
withdraw ourselves from the tumult of environment. 
We must concentrate on the study of the larger 
universal system. 

We remain too often in our basements. Let 
us mount to the calm solitude of our observatory 
towers and look abroad into interplanetary spaces. 

We must focus our spiritual vision. We have 
scattered ourselves and dissipated forces that are 
of incalculable power. It is the thought turned in 
that is the cause of all disease. It is not strange 
that we have so feeble an understanding of the 
problems of life, when we have lived so selfishly 
and so exclusively in the externals. 

We have preferred the shadows to the substance, 
the illusions to the realities. 

But these problems must be met. They cannot 
be longer postponed. 

We may play truant for awhile and spend our 
time on the playground. But dame Nature will 
surely bring us back to our tasks. Death will usher 
us, not into the fool's paradise we have ignorantly 
fancied, but into the truant's court. 



I30 

Wasted opportunities will be the charge. 

If we fail to respond nobly to any of the demands 
of our daily life, we involve ourselves in still more 
trying conditions. 

Nature never overestimates our capacity, and 
never sets for us a harder problem than we can 
solve. We will not be dismissed until our task is 
done. So all our interests unite in urging us to 
the fulfilment of every opportunity of good pre- 
sented to us — today. 



XXVII. 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION. 

To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually 

flow; 
All are written to me and I must get what the writing 

means. — Walt Whitman. 

In passing through life we encounter in our 
fellow-men all the dangers of the forest and jungle. 

In all men there linger some of the distinctive 
characteristics of the brute creation, and in some 
they absolutely govern. We sometimes meet in 
human form wolves and tigers as rapacious as any 
in the forests, serpents as poisonous and foxes as 
cunning as any of the specimens that are caged in 
the menageries. Instruction in natural history is 
almost a necessary part of our education. We 
must learn to distinguish, classify, and control all 
these wild animal forces in ourselves and others. 
Else we shall easily fall a prey to them. 

They disclose themselves to the practised eye 
and become obedient to spiritual intelligence. 

All these things are subject unto man. 

We need not deceive ourselves, however, as to 
the point of evolution humanity has reached. 

Mankind is capable of deeper baseness and higher 
nobility than we dream. We scarcely begin to 



132 

know ourselves. We are nearer both ^to the good 
and evil within us than we understand. We often 
surprise ourselves at the sudden revelation of our 
possibilities in both directions. 

The creeping things live upon the earth and 
burrow into it. 

The fish lives in its native element of water, 
yet feeds upon the lower element of matter in 
solution. 

The bird lives in the air, yet walks upon the 
earth, floats upon the water, and takes its food 
from both. 

Man partially controls all elements. 

Not yet absolutely, for want of knowledge. 

He possesses the combined powers of all orders 
of creation, — beast, bird, and fish. 

He can walk the earth and swim the water. 
Why does he not unfold the power to propel and 
poise himself in the air ^ It surely must be latent 
in him, and the day of its perception and develop- 
ment should not be far away. 

The theory of evolution is accepted today by 
most intelligent minds. It is the best working 
hypothesis that has yet been suggested to account 
for development of form in nature. 

No scientist claims for it a complete demonstra- 
tion. 

The theory of reincarnation is rapidly meeting 
with acceptance by advanced minds as the most 



133 

reasonable hypothesis in the world of spiritual 
development. Like evolution, it is incomplete in 
proof. It can, however, furnish abundant evidence 
of being practical and helpful. Using it as we use 
the X in algebra, it seems to assist the solution of 
many of life's problems. 

It is a cheerful and optimistic theory. It recog- 
nizes no failure. It regards no limits of time. 
It assures every soul of an infinite opportunity for 
working out its problems and obtaining its desires. 

It affirms everything. It denies nothing except 
annihilation and eternal fixity. It perceives an 
absolute equity in life. It regards an earthly 
existence as only a single day at school. 

The day may be rainy, the schoolhouse cold, and 
the playground wet and disagreeable. 

The scholar may feel ill or dull and everything 
seem to go wrong. 

But there will be another morning, when the 
sun will shine, and all the tasks be pleasantly ac- 
complished, and the pupil happy with his comrades 
in the playground. 

There will be an intermission, and when the 
summer holiday is over, what healthy boy does not 
come back to another term eager for fresh achieve- 
ments and full of lusty gladness for the opportuni- 
ties his school life offers him } 

When the school term has begun again the pupil 
takes his rank upon his record of the past. The 



134 

uncompleted task awaits him. He must open the 
book where he closed it last, and though the slate 
be newly washed, the old problem that he failed to 
solve must now again be put upon it. The pleasure 
and success of the new year depend to great extent 
upon the thoroughness of the old work. 

Has it been well done.'* The scholar then is 
ready for higher classes and different occupations, 
'Afresh fields and pastures new." Was it sacrificed 
to indolence and self-indulgence.'' Then the en- 
trance examination must determine his new grade, 
his studies, his associates, and all the disadvantages 
of neglected work must now be met and over- 
come. 

His deficiencies cannot be concealed or the con- 
sequences evaded. If he is ever to graduate with 
honors, it will be only after faithful effort. 

There is reason to believe that after the spirit 
has parted with the mortal body it discovers itself 
to be the vibratory centre of all thought-currents 
related to it, — a spiritual audiphone, upon which 
vibrates all the thought-life of the past and all the 
critical and loving reflections awakened in the 
minds of enemies and friends. 

Thus the spiritual nerve-centres are both audi- 
phone and phonograph of accurate and inexorable 
record. 

This appears to be the spirit primer of the new 
life upon which it has entered and the review of 



135 

the lessons of the schoolroom from which it has so 
lately passed. In its newly acquired sensitiveness 
its vibratory field is greatly enlarged. 

The keyboard of its instrument is lengthened 
and includes new octaves. 

Counterpoint, thoroughbass, and harmony must 
be more thoroughly acquired. The spiritual ear 
becomes alive to the discords and imperfections of 
the past before it can attune itself to heavenly 
choirs. 

Our thought-vibrations will certainly carry us 
just where we belong, as unerringly as water finds 
its level, or atmospheres, their proper strata. 

If we are not satisfied with our conditions we 
must change our thought. 

The same law governs in our sleep as in our 
waking hours. 

We are no strangers to the world of spirit. 

Doubtless after death we will recognize much 
that is familiar. No life is wholly objective and 
material or subjective and spiritual. 

We alternate between the two conditions. Our 
being is rounded like the planet. As the earth 
turns first toward the sun and then away from it, 
bringing successively every part of its surface 
through the alternations of day and night, so do 
our lives revolve through all the range of the 
objective and subjective states until such time as 
we can retain spiritual consciousness upon both 



136 

planes and thus identify and control them alto- 
gether. 

*' This is the victory that overcometh the world." 



There is no problem of life that can come to us 
without bringing its own factors of solution, for 
life is organic mathematics. It is a universal prin- 
ciple, which never fails in any particular application. 

It is easily within our power to live amid the 
noisiest activities and yet possess repose, to dwell 
in all the tumult of a business or a social life with- 
out disturbance to ourselves, because our ears have 
been attuned to higher harmonies which penetrate 
and rise superior to every discord, — as Roentgen 
rays illuminate the solids with their wonderful 
vibrations. 

*'The great man is he who in the midst of the 
crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the indepen- 
dence of solitude." 



J37 



When one has spent a hot day in climbing to the 
top of a Swiss peak to see a sunrise the next 
morning, he may find that the fogs hang so heavily 
about the summit that the beautiful landscape is 
shut out. A few days' patient waiting may reward 
him, for the clouds will lift. But perhaps he will 
go down again into the valleys, disappointed in his 
purpose. 

We are sometimes surprised when we have at- 
tained some height of spiritual knowledge to find 
we cannot see the landscape we had hoped for. 

The fogs of selfishness have not yet lifted. 
They linger long about the mountain top and till 
they go we cannot see abroad. But confident and 
patient expectation will reveal at last more glorious 
visions than we dreamed. 

When we have turned our eyes away from self 
the glories of the universal life appear to us. 

Let us not go back into the valleys but camp on 
the heights and wait for sunrise. 

Whatever we may experience in the circumfer- 
ence of outward conditions, there is always blue 
sky at the centre of our being, where our ego 
dwells with good and we are "at home with the 
soul." 



XXVIIL 
SPIRITUAL MATHEMATICS. 

That which is not good for the swarm, 
Neither is it good for the bee. 

— Marcus Aurelius. 

Unselfishness is freedom. It is a state of 
mind that looks abroad. It does not need, how- 
ever, to seek for itself the gratification of public 
activities. 

The reputation of '' unselfishness " often suggests 
a subtle phase of a selfish nature. Many feed upon 
the contemplation of their own acts, and require 
the approval of their fellows. 

We must candidly admit that at our present 
point of evolution selfishness predominates over 
love. Humanity as yet is but a shrub, — not a 
full grown tree. It is in process of a development 
which never really ceases. Even its dark ages 
mark a period of growth in history as well as in 
the individual. Evolution vibrates with a double 
movement like that of the tides. We should not 
be distressed at the ebb, or elated at the flood. 
There is no retrogression in reality. The appear- 
ance is a phase of progress. Nature moves in an 
orderly way. 

Standing at any point upon the surface of the 



139 

globe, we cannot see far in any direction. We 
cannot judge or measure by the eye the entire 
circle of twenty-five thousand miles. This is 
equally true of individual lives. We cannot look 
forward or backward for any appreciable distance. 
We cannot measure the arc line of our infinite 
past, nor that of the infinite future. The one 
little standing point we occupy today is not suffi- 
cient in its altitude to enable us to solve our 
problems in the spiritual trigonometry, — the higher 
mathematics of our being. One mortal incarna- 
tion is but an infinitessimal point in the great 
circle of existence. 

A truly divine revelation is that which brings to 
us through experience a knowledge of ourselves, 
and thus a knowledge of the universal life. 

Few mortals could endure a distinct view of 
their past or future. Nature drops the veil until 
such time as we are strong enough to raise it, 
as parents conceal from a child the suffering of its 
past which might sadden its young heart and the 
anxieties possible to its future. Let us attend to 
the dinner of today; we do not need to remember 
in detail yesterday's bill of fare; it is too early 
to prepare the menu for tomorrow. 

In this present moment we unite free will and 
destiny. We are experiencing results of which 
the causes lie in our past thinking, and in the living 
of today we arrange the consequences of tomorrow. 



140 

We very soon learn to choose our food with a view 
to results upon the system. The palate has a use 
of its own, but we do not allow it to govern ex- 
clusively our choice of diet. So with the pleasures 
of existence. If we are wise we do not make them 
our chief aim. They come as incidentals of true 
living. 

When we are half blind we cannot judge accu- 
rately of perspective and proportion. In the earlier 
stages of growth we consider chiefly what we are 
to get, and imagine getting to be the true object of 
life. We are at the negative pole of our being, 
and are easily drawn into the stronger magnetic 
fields of others. Later we discover the positive 
pole, and learn that we obtain chiefly through 
giving. We begin to operate from our own cen- 
tres, and being lifted up draw others to us. A 
perfect understanding results in the command of 
both the positive and the negative, the discovery 
of the right relation between giving and receiving, 
the equable flow of the universal currents through 
our individual lives. True living involves neither 
accumulation nor impoverishment. Egoism and 
altruism are equally wrong and hurtful by them- 
selves. Neither is a principle of being. In the 
first the thought is magnetized by the personality 
of self, in the latter by the personality of others. 
The true balance lies where the thought is neither 
inverted nor scattered. Egoism and altruism are 
really one. 



141 

When the soul has learned that its own highest 
good is fulfilled only in the service of others, the 
man knows that he has no separateness from his 
fellows, but is a part with them of the same great 
unity of life. Thus we pass in the evolution of 
ethics from the tribal and clannish ideas of a 
pastoral race to walled towns and patriarchal 
governments. At the next step of progress the 
walls are thrown down, the moats filled and 
changed to gardens, the drawbridge lowered and 
portcullis raised. Then come the confederacies 
of states and the study of sociology as a science of 
the common good. In these closing years of the 
present century we have removed the fences be- 
tween neighbors, throwing their grounds together 
in our landscape gardening. We have opened 
magnificent park systems to the people. This 
recognition of brotherhood is significant. As man 
develops he perceives that perfect equity blends 
and harmonizes the love of himself and the love of 
his neighbor. 

The true life is neither that of the altruist nor 
that of the egoist, but that which includes and 
governs both in perfect equipoise, identifying the 
interests of self with the interests of all. 



142 



The thought of anything as a necessity always 
involves a fear lest we should fail of its possession. 

To the emancipated soul there is no such word 
as "necessity." Our resources are infinite, and 
consequently have no limitations. What is truly 
desirable is always within our reach. 

True education involves most of all the develop- 
ment of the receptive faculties. The first condition 
is the simplicity of childhood. 



XXIX. 
VIBRATORY AFFINITY:* 

A STUDY IN HEREDITY. 

The soul looketh steadily forward: creating a world 
always before her, leaving worlds always behind her. — 
Emerson. 

The true science of mind is found in the study 
of thought vibration. When we have once ad- 
mitted that all growth is from within, and that the 
external is but the expression of the interior life, 
we are logically led to the conclusion that in the 
history of the soul the facts of heredity and en- 
vironment are but the registration of its progress. 
They cannot be positive factors that govern its 
development. 

If we recognize the absolute freedom of the 
spirit, it must choose its own pathway and its 
own methods of development at every point. Our 
parentage then becomes a matter of personal elec- 
tion. " Circumstances " are the conditions aris- 
ing from it. They can never involve injustice to 
the individual, whatever may be the appearances. 
They must operate in harmony with the law of 
vibration, which manifests itself in all the forces 

* Reprinted by permission from Mind, Oct,, 1897. 



144 

of the universe that we have yet discovered and 
governs every detail of our lives. When we admit 
that all vibration is ruled by thought, we perceive 
that there is no force of which we do not hold the 
lever. 

Vibratory affinity offers us a key to the vexed 
problem of heredity. Like chemical affinity, it 
inevitably draws to itself its sympathetic comple- 
ment. Is it not probable that the ego, seeking a 
rebirth, is led by the force of its own nature to 
choose for parents those that vibrate at most points 
in harmony with itself.'' It thus moves upon the 
spiritual lines of least resistance. It secures the 
most fitting opportunities for the study of those 
mortal lessons in which it has recognized its 
greatest need. In this view we are not subject 
beyond our choice to hereditary influences or en- 
vironment. We choose these with the intelligence 
of the free spirit, — as a scholar selects his uni- 
versity and tutors. 

As a result of this theory, sex in offspring must 
be determined by the thought life of the parents, 
not their preference. The character of children 
must follow the same law. A child is the material- 
ized thought of its ancestors, — an entity that has 
been drawn by its own responsive vibrations into 
the mental life of its progenitors and so launched 
upon the ocean of objective being. 

If we study carefully the traits of our children 



145 

we will easily discover the mental phases and 
experiences of our own life which each represents 
and reflects, and through which we were passing 
at the period of their conception. Every child is a 
revelation of his parents in some points of their 
character and shows both their faults and virtues. 
It will frequently be found that the first-born 
embodies most of the ideal, and later children the 
more practical phases of their parents, as they 
advance toward the years of maturity. 

The experience of death, which is the birth into 
the subjective state, must be also governed in all 
its circumstances by the same law that determines 
birth into the objective conditions. It must be 
a consequence of previous thought action, and un- 
consciously determined by the individual mind, — 
whether slow or sudden, violent or peaceful. It 
is the natural and inevitable result of the life 
that has gone before it. The law must be as 
infallible in death as in birth. There can be no 
accidents in a universe governed by law. 

Whatever may be the attitude of ignorant man 
toward what he calls the phenomena of life, it must 
be true that nature itself knows no caprice. Every 
act is at the same time a consequence and a cause. 
Every circumstance is a link in the chain of being, 
forged by the individual himself. 

In the name of science and of the eternal 
equities, we deny hereditary limitation. We also 



146 

deny that any life can be enslaved by its environ^ 
ment. 

These same vibratory forces dominate the re- 
ligions and the politics of the world. We can no 
longer call them tyrannies if they are the choice 
of the people themselves and the manifestation of 
their point of evolution. When better things are 
demanded they are always attainable. The mer- 
cury in the bulb of the thermometer is not respon- 
sible for the temperature it registers. The hands 
of the clock are not the cause of the hour. 
Heredity, environment, religion, politics, society, 
— these are but signs that mark the spiritual 
temperature. They are the hands that point to 
the hour on the dial of human progress. 

Higher spiritual atmospheres are always acces- 
sible to those that desire to inhale them. Every 
soul surrounds itself with its own atmosphere. 
Nothing can set aside this law. The flowers that 
grow in desert sands are nourished by the same 
sun that shines on palace gardens. The desert 
flowers develop a rare and delicate beauty with 
wonderful variety of form and color, — even in a 
soil that we call barren. Doubtless it is the soil 
best adapted to their particular growth. Their 
own rate of vibration attracted and rooted them 
there. 

If we are not controlled by our heredity or 
our environment, which relate us to the com- 



147 

munity in which we Hve, neither can we be con- 
trolled by so-called "planetary influence," which 
relates us to the universe through the plane- 
tary system. Doubtless the planets also register 
our progress and indicate results. In a certain 
sense they seem to be an index of our lives, — as 
the study-card of the collegian is an index of the 
course of lessons he has elected to follow in the 
university and an indication of the progress he 
has made in former schools. But the index has 
no active relation to the university course. It is 
not a governing influence in the student's life. It 
is always subject to his will. 

The principle of personal responsibility is the 
chief corner-stone of all spiritual work. We can 
build nothing of value or stability in our lives till 
we have accepted this fundamental truth. What- 
ever we are, or wherever we are, is the result of 
our spiritual choice, whether made consciously or 
unconsciously. It matters not that we have not 
yet succeeded in tracing all the steps of the long 
road we have traveled. If our theory be true, 
it must apply equally to all planes of existence. 

We often hear of "lower" and "animal" 
planes, as distinguished from "higher" and "spir- 
itual " planes, and we are told that planetary 
influences govern them. All planes are spiritual, 
and we have no reason to think that at any point 
of our development have we been exempt from 



this law of personal responsibility. It is the 
eternal and unchanging law of evolution, which 
is being emphasized with every new discovery. 

If we admit that birth, life, and death are the 
legitimate consequences of thought, then there 
can be no such thing as danger. A man is just 
as safe upon the battlefield or amid wreck and ruin 
by sea or land as in the comfortable seclusion of 
his home. The event may provide occasion but 
not cause of death. Man can never really be a 
martyr or a victim. Each life determines its own 
issues. It comes and goes as the result of the 
workings of its own spiritual will. Is not this the 
only true meaning and possibility of freedom ? 
Does not this view of life also take away all our 
old, miserable thought of burden bearing.? 

We do not encourage the child at school, whose 
lessons have been carefully selected and adapted 
to his age and aims in life, to whine and lament the 
burdens of his spelling-book as soon as he comes 
to words of two syllables, or to grieve over his 
sums in long division after he has learned his 
tables. We know they are the very things he 
needs to develop the powers that will win him 
success in life, and to secure for him all that his 
manhood will deem most desirable in possession 
and accomplishment. 

Self-pity is a grievous fault and weakness. We 
cannot see straight nor clearly while we permit it 



149 

to remain. It must be destroyed in all its roots 
and allowed no tendril or hiding-place. Nothing 
but the recognition of our freedom and responsi- 
bility at every point of our existence can destroy 
this thought. If we build our lives upon these 
principles we work with confidence and satisfaction, 
— even though it be sometimes true, as Matthew 
Arnold writes, that — 

" With aching hands and bleeding feet 
We dig and heap, — lay stone on stone; 
We bear the burden and the heat of the long day and wish 

'twere done. 
Not till the hours of light return 
All we have built do we discern." 



Perhaps the largest part of our experience is in 
the field of the subconscious. A trait or purpose 
is developed there long before it appears above the 
horizon of our perceptions. Long after we have 
denied a habit or opinion it is apt to linger there 
and color or actuate our life, as the sunrise is 
preceded by the dawn and the sunset is followed 
by the evening twilight. 



XXX. 

VIBRATORY FORCES. 

Love took up the Harp of Life 
And smote all its chords with might, 
Smote the chord of self, which trembling 
Passed in music out of sight. 

— Tennyson, 

The right punishment of one out of tune is to make him 
play in tune. — Emerson. 

Harmony in music is a blending of chords, a 
joining of notes, a fitting together of sympathetic 
vibrations through which the melody runs as 
'' motif." 

A well-trained orchestra or military band is a 
wonderful illustration of the power of harmony. 
Each player keeps carefully to his score and inter- 
prets the "motif" of the piece through his indi- 
vidual instrument. Each is rendering the same 
thought in a different way. Each has studied in 
a different school with masters of his own. He 
has developed skill of eye, ear, lip, and finger, with 
a view to the interpretation of musical thought. 
These musicians come together with one purpose. 
With one sympathetic effort they produce a volume 
of sound which thrills all pulses, awakens all human 
emotions, and moves to laughter and to tears. 

It is a grand suggestion of the possibilities of 
expression. 



151 

So with the orchestra of our humanity. The 
"motif" of love runs through all life. Our daily 
experience fits us for the individual expression 
of the central thought. Some express it feebly, 
while from others its harmonies flow as grandly, as 
sweetly, and as smoothly as the strains of a skilled 
orchestra, arousing into action all that is best in 
their fellow-men, and moving them to noblest 
aspiration. 

Above all the noises of the storm on Galilee a 
gentle human voice commanded, "Peace, be still." 

Immediately there was a great calm. The Spirit 
of gentleness was master of the tempest. 

Mind dominates all nature's forces. It draws at 
will upon them all. It is itself the lawgiver and 
sovereign. 

It is greater than the cyclone and the tempest, 
tidal wave or forest fire. 

But it must learn its power in the silence, in the 
stillness in which all power has birth. 

When peace commands there are no winds or 
waves of life that will not recognize their master. 
There are no storms it cannot quell, not even 
though the ship be full and foundering. 

But how dim is our recognition of the forces we 
embody, and how feeble is our utterance ! 

With knowledge comes the power of expression 
that will still all storms. 

Both amiability and irritability are magnets which 



152 

draw to themselves of their own vibration. If we 
are loving, we find abundant stimulus to love. If 
peevish and anxious, we do not have to look far 
for occasion to indulge our weakness. It meets us 
at every step and follows us with strange per- 
sistency. 

If we do not breathe easily in any atmosphere, 
we must climb to higher planes where the air is 
clearer. 

We need not rush hither and thither on the 
accustomed levels. We will only find that all 
earth's atmospheres have the same component 
gases. 

We must rise to heights of spiritual ozone, where 
our better nature will find refreshment, and our 
bodily organs will respond. If there are mists in 
the valley, we must mount to spiritual lookouts 
and flash our search-lights around a wider horizon. 

We will thus breathe and see clearly, and dis- 
cover all that we desire. 

Love is the tuning-fork of life. It gives the key- 
note to harmony in every situation. 

Nothing is impossible to love, but it must first 
be clarified from every element of selfishness. 

Our love draws to itself its corresponding quality 
of affection. 

We never can be unloved if we are loveable. 

" Depend not on external supports," says Marcus 
Aurelius, *'nor beg your tranquillity of another." 



153 

Independence is the essence of true friendship. 

We can never fully enjoy a friend till we are 
wholly independent of his affection. 

We cannot be entirely happy in the thought of 
anything so long as there exists a fear of losing it. 

Love must become the great magnet of our life. 
It will draw to us all we need, and permit nothing 
of evil to approach in either spiritual or material 
conditions. It is like a dynamo at the centre of 
our being. There go out from it, projected at our 
will, electric currents which drive away all things 
undesirable. It has an illimitable radius. 

Before we can control and operate such a force 
we must have learned that the great secret of life 
is absolute confidence in the Infinite Love. 

God is Love. 

This proposition includes all forces, for God, 
Love, Life, Truth, Wisdom, Power, are but 
synonyms. 

The magnet is always true to the north. We 
never fear it will not find its pole, however much 
the needle vibrates. 

Love need never seek. If we make ourselves 
loving and lovable, we may be sure that all hearts 
attuned to the same chord must vibrate respon- 
sively throughout the universe. 

Jealousy is impossible to love, for '' love seeketh 
not its own ; " and jealousy is always selfishness. 

It is the root of most domestic trouble. It 



154 

claims to be an evidence of affection, and hides 
behind the thought of parental or connubial devo- 
tion. It is simple despotism and wilfulness. It 
seeks to control, and craves for evidence of its 
power. 

The touchstone of true love is self-forgetfulness. 

Both God and man respond to the vibrations of 
trust and distrust. 

We receive from both what we confidently 
expect. 

Let us recognize the best in everything and 
everybody. 

When perfect love has cast out all fear from our 
hearts, then, indeed, we have come to the kingdom 
of good. With fear goes all anxiety, resentment, 
and greed. For the first time we have really be- 
come as little children. 

We no longer crave for the possession of any 
person or thing in the ordinary sense. We do not 
fear to miss it, for we know that all is ours. 

Then have all things become possible to us. We 
cannot confound the substance and the shadow, the 
ideal and the actual. No doubt can ever again 
arise in us that God's will is always accomplished 
without hindrance at every instant of time and in 
every place, as the lightning cleaves all clouds. 

A small particle of gas can vitiate volumes of 
atmosphere. A bit of poison can permeate large 
bodies of water; a fine chemical can change the 



155 

color of flame; so an unrighteous thought can 
paralyze the spiritual powers. 

When love is enthroned the eye is no longer 
dimmed by personal emotions; the ear is no 
longer deafened to the truth by its sensitiveness 
to self ; the tongue is not palsied by the poison 
of the power to wound ; the feet have been washed 
in the blood of the heart, and trodden down all 
selfish desires; the whole being is alert with new 
spiritual life. It sees, speaks, and stands with the 
soul. It has developed adeptship, and can be 
entrusted with the native powers it has unfolded. 

It vibrates to all the harmonies of life. The 
at-one-ment has been accomplished between the 
mortal self and spiritual ego. The man has come 
to himself. 

He has learned the spiritual chemistry. 

He finds that the elements of earth, water, air, 
fire, ether, and spirit are but different rates of 
vibration in the harmonic scale of Being. Spirit 
is the finest and highest, and governs all the 
others; fire is the highest of the four material 
elements, and possesses the power of resolving 
each and all of the lower forces into that above 
it by a quickening of its rate of vibration. 

In chemistry instantaneous results follow the 
completion of conditions. 

When the last element has been added to the 
mixture, it sets free the gas which produces the 
explosion. 



156 

In the science of mind the conditions for chang- 
ing either body or environment may be a long time 
in preparation. The healer or the sufferer may be 
slow in perceiving the necessary thought. When 
it has been found and applied the cure is instan- 
taneous. It cannot be delayed if the patient is 
receptive. 

Is there any suffering that does not come 
through fear.!^ 

Fear is the cause of all wars, greed, and sensu- 
ality, — fear of not obtaining all we want and to 
which we think ourselves entitled. 

Fear is the root of all anxiety, of all resentment. 

We may even find it in the germ of all disease 
and death. We already recognize it as the direct 
cause of many acute and chronic troubles. 

What is the remedy for fear.'* What but the 
realization of the nature of good, the recognition 
of the fact that we actually do possess all things 
and live in good, in perfect freedom ; that we have 
nothing to desire or expect but our own unfold- 
ment, and that we absolutely govern the time and 
method of that ourselves. 

O friend, never strike sail to a fear. Come into port 
greatly, or sail with God the seas. — Emerson. 



is; 



Environment may color but it never moulds the 
character. It gives nothing more than a veneering, 
and the natural wood will show through sooner or 
later. Its grain cannot be concealed. The hero 
is not hidden in the slums. The scoundrel cannot 
hide himself amid luxurious surroundings. Each 
will work out his own true character in spite of 
birth and position. 

We are creators of circumstances, not its creat- 
ures. 

Are the problems of today beyond our mathe- 
matics } . Not if we are one with Wisdom. '' I 
am " is a sufficient confession of faith. 



XXXI. 
THOUGHT VIBRATIONS. 

" Neither be ye of doubtful mind." 

It is a significant and helpful fact that business 
etiquette requires signatures implying truth and 
honesty in our relations to each other. " Yours 
respectfully " and " Most truly yours " suggest a 
bond of sincerity and service that is more than a 
mere formality. The vibrations of such words are 
both agreeable and stimulating. We should be 
careful never to use them but with honest meaning. 
They are cushions to the severities of business 
correspondence that relieve and soften many jolts 
and jars. 

The almost universal phrase "all right" is the 
unconscious testimony to a true philosophy of life, 
the popular echo of its highest thought. On the 
other hand, "too good to be true" is a pessimism 
we should never use. Goodness and truth are 
never found apart. "Good enough to be true" 
is the real tone of an optimistic mind. Let us live 
in confidence of the best and not the worst that we 
can draw to ourselves. Let us change another 
proverb and truly affirm that "«// news is good 
news." 

We no longer say "Providence permitting," be- 



tS9 

cause we have learned that Providence can do 
nothing in relation to us except what we permit. 
Napoleon was right in principle when he asserted 
"I propose and dispose too," although he may have 
failed in his integrity of purpose and thereby 
brought disaster in the issue. When we identify 
ourselves with the creative power we dismiss all 
former limitations. It is not impossible that we 
may yet discover that the very orbit of our planet 
has been determined by the action of the human 
mind, and that the weather itself is but an ever 
varying expression of our thought vibrations. In 
arctic regions the breath of the traveler falls to 
the ground in snowflakes. We have thought 
climate responsible for character. Why net re- 
verse the postulate, since we have failed of proof, 
and ask if character may not be a cause of climate } 
A disagreeable person certainly makes the air 
vibrant with discomfort, as we all know from 
experience. We are getting new theories for the 
laws of storms. 

*' He that is of a merry heart hath a continual 
feast." Yet we foolishly say, ''A short life and a 
merry one," when we know right well that merri- 
ment is a most desirable tonic to one who wishes 
length of days. 

Our common salutation, '* How are you ? " im- 
plies a doubt of health. It was, perhaps, adapted 
to the old days, when we filled our conversation 



i6o 



and our correspondence with accounts of our own 
ills and those of our families. Now that we recog- 
nize health and happiness as the inevitable results 
of a true life, and anything else as a signal bell 
calling for immediate correction of our thought, we 
need to change some of our current phrases. We 
want to express confidence and gladness, rather 
than doubt and sympathy. We must drop many 
of our commonplace remarks. They do not strike 
the tuneful keynote of best things. In our anxiety 
for the body we have been like workmen spending 
more time on their tools than on the work for 
which they were intended. To hear our constant 
inquiries for one another's "health," it would ap- 
pear as if ''health" were quite unusual. The 
marvel is that with all the vitalizing forces that 
envelop and permeate us we can be ever ill. It 
would not be possible except that our aims and 
methods of life were at fault. These can be cor- 
rected only by changing our mental attitudes to 
our work and our associates. 

We do not strive for air to fill our lungs. We 
need not strive for health. It is the normal con- 
dition of life. We need not pine for love. It is 
the universal atmosphere. We draw to us all 
minds and hearts in the seen and the unseen that 
are keyed to the same thought and purpose as 
ourselves. We have more companionship in every 
hour than we realize. Our brains and hearts are 



i6i 

fed from everlasting springs rather than from the 
books of schoolmen. An artesian well of thought 
life may be opened in our inmost being. We may 
draw from it at will. 

When the incandescent light of the awakened 
spirit has been kindled, we can turn it in the 
silence upon any problem of our life. We need 
never walk in darkness. We are creatures of the 
Light. 

We must not be surprised if many friends and 
things we have held dear become estranged from 
us when our vibrations have been tuned to higher 
thought. It could scarcely be otherwise. We 
seem, perhaps, to travel through the wilderness 
that lies between Goshen and Canaan. It may 
be a long and trying period before we fully mani- 
fest in our externals the newly acquired power. 
But that manifestation will appear as surely as the 
noonday follows dawn. All that we seemed to 
lose will be returned to us in fresh beauty and 
larger abundance. The best and dearest friend- 
ships of our lives await us with their welcome. 
Unexpected opportunities stretch out before us. 
Hidden treasures will be uncovered. We will have 
no regrets for lost possessions or unfaithful friends. 
Spiritual truths assert their power in our lives, and 
we can only wonder at the new conditions we have 
reached by growth. 

Spiritual development leads us from the anxious 



l62 



thought of the particular into the larger domain of 
the universal. It shows us that the higher laws 
when recognized compel the accurate and orderly 
adjustment of all private and personal issues, as 
the masterful current of electric force draws to its 
poles all the steel particles within its magnetic 
field. They are brought into beautiful and orderly 
arrangement by the grand sweep of irresistible 
forces. We cannot have too much confidence in 
the Supreme Mind that governs, and which mani- 
fests itself through our individual intelligence upon 
demand. If we turn our thought with fear and 
distrust upon any organ of our body, we obstruct 
and paralyze its action. The relief is brought by 
diverting these currents outward and leaving the 
organic operation to the forces and intelligence 
which vitalize and govern them. The same law 
may be discovered in our so-called ''practical af- 
fairs." Intense and anxious thought always com- 
plicates and obscures. Confidence in the law of 
harmony which rules will bring order out of chaos, 
will lead us to clear seeing and right action. 

We care little for the height of the waves or the 
fury of the storm when we know we have a good 
ship under us and a commander that was never 
wrecked in any gale and has sailed all seas. We 
may safely put this trust in our higher ego, which 
is our true "Father in heaven" and incorporated 
with the Divine Essence of the universe. Good 



i63 

can never fail. It knows nothing but success. 
Sun and tempest are alike to it. It is sovereign of 
all. Our little boat was built to sail these seas. 
It can never founder. In due time we will come 
safely into port. The storms cannot destroy or 
cripple us. They cannot drive us from our course. 
'' Why are ye fearful .?" 

Avarice is the expression of a fear of poverty. 
Ambition for fame involves the fear for reputation. 
Disease is the externalizing of a fear of death. 
The thought of spiritual freedom is an antidote for 
all. Spiritual forces in harmonious relation to us 
can bring nothing but pleasure. We fear receiving 
too little or too much. We fear that we may 
give too little or too much. We hold continually 
the thought of repletion or exhaustion. It is these 
whimsical doubts that bring the suffering. Har- 
mony is equilibrium. All disturbances are in the 
intellect. This is the surface of our lives. Storms 
never reach the ocean depths, — they agitate the 
surface only. The deeper the pool the less is it 
susceptible to action of the winds. True recog- 
nition of the spiritual forces we embody gives us 
command of perfect peace, through a sense of 
perfect power. 

No thought can bind us but with our consent. 
Many men are anchored to their fears. They hold 
them fast and paralyze their action. Many more 
are hindered by resentments and regrets. Most of 



1 64 

us are magnetized by a thought of weakness. Yet 
we say "all men are born free." This is doubtless 
true. Its strongest evidence lies in the fact that 
in a world of good and opulence, a planet teeming 
with life, we have the power to make ourselves 
blind and deaf and to create conditions of disease 
and poverty. What better proof of sovereignty 
could we desire? 



In our spiritual nature we are like automatic 
valves. As long as we open ourselves to the lower 
motive and indulgence we close ourselves to the 
higher by that very impulse. 

When we close the lower, we open the higher. 

The choice is always ours. 



i6S 



Many of us are afflicted with a disease of pre- 
maturity, which is only one of the most subtle 
manifestations of fear, to which we are all subject, 
in some form. 

We are anxious to meet a train, or take one; 
our thoughts of possible contingencies so weigh 
upon our minds, that we lose more time in habitual 
waiting at the depots than we could lose if we 
missed many trains. We have a matter of some 
moment to consider in the near future ; we allow it 
so to burden us, that it disturbs our equilibrium for 
days before the hour of action or decision comes, 
and, when it arrives, we are really less fitted to 
meet it, fairly, than if it had come upon us unex- 
pectedly. When will we learn that life is some- 
thing of the present moment, and that it is a 
serious loss of power, as well as happiness, to do 
everything with a view to being " prepared for the 
worst," upon which so many pride themselves. 
"To take no anxious thought for the morrow" is 
to focus our highest power on today, and know that 
we have spiritual reserves for all contingencies of 
life. 

"Write on your doors the saying : 

Wise and old, 

Be bold ! Be bold ! 

And everywhere be bold !" 



XXXII. 
THE HYPNOTIC POWER OF WORDS. 

It is well known to all students of the science of 
vibration that certain hypnotic influences are con- 
veyed through sounds as well as sight. 

Such influences can indeed be developed through 
the avenues of any of the senses. 

The sound waves of a clear-toned bell will place 
a sensitive subject almost immediately in a trance 
condition ; so will the dripping of water or the tick- 
ing of a clock. 

In states of weariness the most positive person 
will find the humming of a bee or the chirping of 
a cricket bring a sense of drowsiness and languor 
which is the first stage of negative conditions. 

On the other hand, the shrill notes of the fife 
and the beating of the drum in time of war will 
arouse the populace to a condition of patriotic 
hysteria and produce the frenzy necessary to 
soldiers before they will expose themselves to the 
inhuman conditions of the battlefield. 

Yet we do not often realize the power of sounds 
in words. 

Every word spoken by human lips carries with it 
in the utterance a concentration of hypnotic force 
applied through its vibrations. 



i67 

These vibrations meet with a response from 
every mind attuned to a sympathetic key. 

Thus is the power of thought concentrated in a 
word and transmitted by a breath. 

In words we find both sedatives and stimulants 
of all degrees of force, which is largely varied by 
the tones of speech. 

There is no word in any language without this 
vibratory power. 

All students of the occult know the use made of 
this principle in Oriental religions. The central 
thought of the Hindoo is concentrated in the 
syllable ''om," while in the Hebrew the most sacred 
of the names of Deity was never allowed to be 
pronounced. 

It is even claimed that the vibrations of certain 
words will produce physical results as great as 
those reported of the shouts and trumpets of the 
besiegers before the walls of Jericho. 

The secret passwords of masonic orders are 
given always in a whisper, while the most careful 
conditions are prescribed for the utterance of 
others, all of which is of an occult significance 
but little understood in our secret societies of the 
western world. 

It is a scientific fact that certain chords upon 
the violin will produce results of almost incredible 
force. 

The words we use so lightly are possessed of 



1 68 



truly magic powers to him who knows their secret 
appHcation. When hurled with the force of passion 
or breathed with the gentleness of love, they wound 
or win beyond our expectation. 

In the science of mind it is an essential help to 
right development to make the air about us vibrant 
with such words as "freedom," ''truth," "love," 
''health," "opulence," and "wisdom." 

A wealth of words rightly applied and carefully 
toned is a mental medicine-chest of incalculable 
value. A word may have all the fabled power of 
an amulet. 

The success of any popular movement is greatly 
forwarded by a discreet choice and use of names 
and titles. 

This is curiously shown in two of the most 
remarkable organizations of the century : " The 
Salvation Army" and the " Christian Science 
Church." 

Let us analyze the words by which they conjure 
and examine the conditions under which they have 
been developed. 

The Salvation Army works on the lowest social 
planes of human life. 

It had its origin among a people who had always 
been familiar with the armed forces of the European 
governments which were daily paraded before their 
eyes. 

In these they had no part because they were of 



169 

the class which General Booth has named "the 
submerged tenth." 

To them the king, queen, commander, captain, 
soldier, represented power in which they could not 
share, but to which they must always submit ; while 
the clergy preached the dangers of an unknown 
future from which they could escape only through 
acceptance of a creed. 

Thus for their salvation they must look to 
another life where they, too, could be kings and 
priests ; the rulers, instead of the ruled. 

These two words, "army" and "salvation," thus 
appealed to the two governing motives of their lives, 
the desire to be identified with massed forces repre- 
senting power, and to be assured of "beer and 
skittles" in the next world (glorified to "harps 
and crowns"), which they had sadly missed in 
this. 

To such minds the "army" stands on the physi- 
cal plane as the type of strength and safety, while 
" salvation " promises deliverance from all their 
fears of the hereafter. 

The changes rung on these words form the 
burden of the constant services of the Salvation 
Army. 

All their methods appeal to the senses: drums, 
trumpets, cymbals, assail the ear, while flags and 
uniforms attract the eye. War cries and exhorta- 
tions impress and stimulate the mind that has been 
sensitized by poverty, dissipation and distress. 



I/O 

Christian Science works at the other social ex- 
treme and appeals to the intellectual classes. Its 
chief instruments are two books with singularly 
well-chosen names, added to a constant reminder 
of its leader as the '^ discoverer and founder." 

To the intelligent mind of the nineteenth cen- 
tury Christianity and Science embody all that is 
worthy of aspiration. 

The strongest efforts have been made to har- 
monize the two, and to make the one the interpreter 
of the other. 

Christian Science boldly claims the monopoly of 
both in its fraternity, — a sort of ''religious and 
scientific trust." 

No combination of words could be more effectual 
than those found in its titles to him whose most 
earnest desire is to solve the problem of the 
"at-one-ment," and whose investigations of the 
Scriptures have left the longing for a "key." 

To many such the unprofitable conflict between 
science and religion has only ended in their own 
minds in disease. 

Having failed to find satisfaction in the church, 
they turn to the new cult, and accept in place of 
the "Revised Version," which they hailed with 
approval a few years since, the latest " Key to the 
Scriptures," duly copyrighted and stamped with 
the name of the discoverer and founder, — sole 
proprietor, — a bunch of keys, indeed, for with it 



171 

goes '' Science and Health," — a combination claim- 
ing to open with its patent wards, the treasure- 
house of health and happiness, of mind and body. 

Are we to wonder that with the successful 
experience of these suggestive forces which have 
been so useful to the cause of Christian Science, its 
discoverer and founder should so persistently warn 
her followers of the dangers of ''malicious mag- 
netism," notwithstanding ''all is good." 

This is the new devil of the new religion, the 
very suggestion of which compels its devotees to 
cross themselves with daily treatment and repeat 
their "Ave Marias" with the fear and trembling 
of the monk of the middle ages, pronouncing his 
exorcism of the hosts of Apollyon. 

" Malicious magnetism " is found in every thought 
and word of criticism to the new religion; con- 
sequently all literature is proscribed except that 
provided by its canonical books. 

The panacea for this danger is the new "Hail 
Mary!" 

Far be it from us to be inhospitable to the grand 
central thought of Christian Science, or the noble 
purpose of the Salvation Army. 

With both of these all intelligent minds must 
find themselves in fullest sympathy. 

We would only divest these movements of their 
personality and meretricious aids and build them 
upon universal principles. 



172 

Truth is something infinitely beyond our petty 
personalities and egotistical limitations. It is far 
above all definitions of the broadest minds that 
have ever lived. 

It " is not an infant," as Dr. Holmes once said, 
*'to be carefully wrapped up every time it is taken 
out for an airing lest it should take cold." 

It does not need the organization of a "church," 
or "army," or "keys" fashioned by mortal minds 
to unlock its treasures. 

It does not need the fostering care of any 
" cause." 

It comes in the silence into every heart that it 
finds open for its reception, — or rather it opens 
gently our heavy eyelids to perceive that we live 
amid its glories and in its very courts, that it broods 
and permeates us like the very atmosphere we 
breathe, this " light that never shone on land nor 
sea." 

We simply have learned that "good is love." 
We have no more desire to organize and proselyte 
than we have to bottle up the sunshine and paste 
on our own labels. 

Our only aim is to unfold our being, as the 
flower opens its petals to the light and dew. 

The science of mind brings us to a larger recog- 
nition of our own thought centres. 

When we rest in these our equilibrium is never 
disturbed by the hypnotic thought or word of any 



173 

leader or discipleship, — <<we do not throw away 
our legs to go upon crutches," as says Marcus 
Aurelius. 

We have found the "power of good unto salva- 
tion.'.' 

We have recognized in ourselves "the image and 
likeness of good." 

We have learned to confess that "all things are 
ours." 

This is the "truth that makes us free." 

It is the full perception that in "good we live 
and move and have our being." 

It is the anwer to the watchman's challenge 
"What of the night .'^" " The morning comet h." 



174 

There is much in life suggestive of a shadow 
pantomime. 

A hypnotized subject can be sometimes influ- 
enced to an attempt at robbery or murder. We 
smile at the mock act, but to the performer it is 
real. 

In actual experience can we deprive another of 
his life, or property, or anything belonging to him } 

Does the murderer ever reach the real life of the 
one we call his victim.? Is not all crime but a 
shadow pantomime in which the only sufferer is the 
criminal himself who has been mesmerized by a 
false and vicious purpose ? 

The law courts are beginning to recognize hyp- 
notic suggestion as an incentive to crime. 

The next step will be the recognition of responsi- 
bility in the criminal for the conditions that made 
it possible for him to be thus influenced. 

We may all become self-hypnotized. All crime 
and disease are the results of that condition. 

In shadow pantomime the figures grow in size as 
they recede from the canvas. In real life we easily 
exaggerate the size and proportion of our fellow- 
men as their perspective lengthens. 

We often find them shrink in size as they ap- 
proach. 

Until we learn to recognize the real man in our- 
selves and in our fellows we are subject to many 
illusions. 



XXXIII. 
INSOMNIA. 

Dwell up there in the simple and noble regions of thy 
life. Obey thy heart and thou shalt reproduce the foreworld 
again. — Emerson. 

Who of US has not suffered from sleepless 
nights.? The subjective life in which, as Macdonald 
so quaintly suggests, our souls go home to their 
father's house to gain refreshment for the morrow, 
is often sacrificed to the anxieties of the objective 
day which chain us to our tasks. 

This is not right ; consequently it is not neces- 
sary. We offer many explanations : business cares, 
regrets for the past, anxieties regarding the future, 
perplexities of the present. We are oppressed 
with sorrow, troubled by criticism, depressed by 
seeming helplessness and inability to carry out our 
purposes. So we toss wearily through all the 
long hours of the night ; and even dread, perhaps, 
the coming of the day, with its responsibilities. 
We feel we cannot meet the problems that will 
present themselves. 

Let us make a diagnosis of insomnia, and pre- 
scribe a remedy. We are reluctant to admit it, 
but there can be but one cause: it is the thought 
of self, — egotism. This is the root of every fear 



176 

and the single cause of all unbalanced mental con- 
ditions. The first indications are self-consciousness 
and diffidence, which is sometimes mistaken for a 
virtue, and offered as evidence of a modest spirit. 

When we conceive justly of ourselves, the fault 
of self-depreciation is as impossible as egotism. To 
indulge in either is to produce thought vibrations 
which are not the harmonies of true life. 

Harmonious vibration brings us peace. It mani- 
fests serenity and confidence in every situation of 
the objective life, and makes it easy and delightful 
to pass into the tranquillity of sleep. We learn to 
identify ourselves with both universal energy and 
universal repose. We become sensible of the 
rhythm in which we alternate between subjective 
and objective, night and day, mortal and immortal. 
We feel no painful sense of separateness in any 
phase of our existence. The great life of the 
universe throbs in us joyously. We are never 
helpless nor alone. 

If in any hour we feel disturbed, we know that 
our vibration must be changed. Here, then, is our 
remedy for restlessness. 

We control our vibratory life through thought. 
Let us take up a new thought and we will find the 
entire system will respond to the change, and 
attune itself to the new keynote. The experiment 
is easily made. We will choose for every night a 
mental sleeping draught, — some word of the phi- 



177 

losophers or poets that appeals to our especial need. 
We will soon get into the tuneful vibrations of the 
thought, and find them infinitely more effective 
than bromides and opiates, for the simple reason 
that they feed the true soul life, and bring us into 
harmony with the greater life of which we are 
the individual expressions. 

Requiescat in pace. 

The heart of being is celestial rest. — Edwin 
Arnold. 

Casting all your care upon him, for he careth 
for you. — Peter. 

In nature every moment is new ; the past is always 
swallowed and forgotten ; the coming only is sacred. 
Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing 
spirit. — Emerson. 

Think how worthless everything is after which 
men violently strain. — Marcus Aurelius. 

We sit and weep in vain. The voice of the 
Almighty saith, ''Up and onward forevermore." — 
Emerson. 

In the morning when thou risest unwillingly let 
this thought be present: " I am rising to the work 
of a human being. Why, then, am I dissatisfied if 
I am going to do the things for which I exist and 
for which I was brought into the world.?" — Marcus 
Aurelius. 

Think not so much of what thou hast not as of 



178 

what thou hast. But of the things which thou 
hast select the best and then reflect how eagerly 
they would have been sought if thou hadst them 
not. — Marcus Aurelius. 

Let it make no difference to thee whether thou 
art cold or warm if thou art doing thy duty ; 
whether thou art drowsy or satisfied with sleep; 
and whether ill spoken of or praised, and whether 
dying or doing something else. — Marcus Aurelius. 

A man who stands united with his thought con- 
ceives magnificently of himself. He is conscious 
of a universal success even though bought by uni- 
form particular failures. — Emerson. 

Nothing can work me damage except myself. — 
St. Bernard. 

It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the 
kingdom . — Jesus. 

Fortune never helps the man whose courage 
fails. — Sophocles. 

Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole 
of thy life. — Marcus Atirelius. 

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a 
hundred tacks. — Emerson. 

Great peace have they that love thy law. — 
Psalms. 

Keep to the score and thou hast naught to fear. 
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 

Trust thyself. Every heart vibrates to that iron 
string. — Emerson. 



179 

"If my bark sink, 'tis to another sea." 
I affirm that tranquillity is nothing else than the 
good ordering of the mind. — Marcus Aurelius. 

And I smiled to think God's greatness 
Flowed around our incompleteness, 
Round our restlessness His rest. 

— Mrs. Browning. 

I see not any road of perfect peace which a man 
can walk but to take counsel of his own bosom. — 
Emerson, 

No longer be either dissatisfied with thy present 
lot, or shrink from the future. — Marcus Aurelius. 

Do that which is assigned thee and thou canst 
not hope too much or dare too much. — Emerson. 

Be like the promontory against which the waves 
continually break. — Marcus Aurelius. 



Think not that with the day thy work is done : 
Through all the night thou'rt moving toward the sun. 

It is within the province of every divine man to 
command with authority the waves of life with 
"peace, be still," and to issue the edict also, "let 
there be light." 



XXXIV. 

PILLOW THOUGHTS. 

OR, MENTAL SLEEPING DRAUGHTS. 

Prescription — To be taken nightly. 

Today I have got out of all trouble ; or rather, I have cast 
out all trouble, for it was not outside but within, and in my 
opinions. — Marcus Aurelius. 

It is well to acquaint ourselves with the laws of 
storms in the domain of the spirit, as well as in the 
material universe. 

The shores of self show often the violence of 
the tempests that have raged in the deep seas of 
the mind. 

Often the waves break upon these shores and 
vex them long after the tempest has been forgot- 
ten. This is shown in the discomfort of the body. 

To relieve it we must launch our thought-boats 
through the surf and pass out into the open sea of 
universal life, where we always find still waters. 

Leave the shores of self. Get away from the 
noise of the breakers, and pain and restlessness will 
cease. 

When the navigator comes into rough sailing, he 
knows the wind has been blowing a gale in some 



i8i 

quarter, even though his own course has lain in 
smooth latitudes. 

We can learn to control the storms in both our 
conscious and subconscious selves, and make all 
winds and waves obey us. 

When the mariner finds himself befogged he 
sails from *'dead reckoning." He examines his 
log, heaves the lead, and works his tables. He 
studies the depths below instead of the heavens 
above, with full assurance that soon the fog will 
lift, and he can again sight his sextant on the sun, 
make his observations clearly, and correct his 
course. 

We need never really lose our reckoning, or fear 
the eclipse of the sun and stars of truth, though 
hours come to all of us when we seem to sail 
through banks of fog. 

" No star is ever lost we once have seen ; 
We always may be what we might have been." 

Our lives are chiefly constructed of seeming 
failures and disappointments. Out of these we 
fashion the very best of building stones, when 
rightly treated. 

The strongest characters spend no time in re- 
grets, but build the cabalistic words " I am " and 
"I will" into the keystone of their arch, in largest 
recognition of the universal energy and power which 
is focused in themselves. 



l82 



When the full daylight falls upon this work 
of our earthly life, we are sure to find that many of 
its chief corner-stones are those "rejected by the 
builders." 

" No good thing will he withhold from them that 
walk uprightly." 

Let us examine ourselves and see if this does not 
explain our poverty, instead of denying the good 
things as sour grapes beyond our reach, like the 
fox in the fable. 

''Whom to know aright is life everlasting." 
Why should we talk so continuously of our 
" doubts " and '* fears " when we can knowy if we 
allow the inner light to shine. 

Light is positive and radiates. Darkness is 
negative and absorbs. One is powerful, the other 
powerless. 

So with good and evil. 

We underestimate the power of good. 

We exaggerate the power of "evil." 

Evil is the weakest thing in life. It is a mirage, 
a temporary appearance only, and contrary to all 
the tides and currents of the universe. 

Good has all the forces of the Infinite behind it. 
Its power is incalculable. It never fails. 

What unsubstantial things are clouds, — mere 



i83 

mist, a thickening of the atmosphere. Yet they 
sometimes shut out the sun. But not long. Sun- 
shine always follows the rain. Day always follows 
night. The twilight is always brief. 

So with the perplexities of life. If we are wise, 
we are content with knowing that the sun always 
shines, and that, as Emerson says, '* There is a soul 
at the centre of nature." 

How clear and bright the air seems to us when 
we arise in the morning after a night of storm. To 
what distances we can see in all directions. 

Just so do our spiritual atmospheres brighten as 
we climb out of the fogs up to our spiritual table- 
lands, where the air is always clear. 

We can then look back and discern plainly the 
windings of the road we have traveled. 

We can see the necessity of every path that 
seemed so blind a mystery when we set our feet 
in it. Looking forward, we perceive the heights 
toward which we journey, and which have been ob- 
scured by fogs and overhanging clouds. 

In olden days the warders of the city gates 
would call the hours of the night, and add the com- 
forting cry, "All is well ! " 

If we waken and are restless on our pillows, let 
us listen for the voice of our higher consciousness, 
a watchman that never sleeps : 



i84 

*' Twelve of the clock! Twelve of the clock, 
and all is well ! " 

" Three of the clock ! Four of the clock ! The 
morning cometh, and all is well, all is well ! " 

"'Tis always morning somewhere in the world." 

Be cheerful, also, and seek not external help 
nor the tranquillity which others give. — Marcus 
Aurelius. 

Action and inaction are alike to the true. — 
Emerson. 

The mill will never grind with the water that is 
past. — Old Proverb. 

I am firm. I trust in Him who governs. — Mar- 
cus Aurelius. 

Lead me, O Father, holding by Thy hand, 
I ask not whither, for it must be on. 

— Macdonald. 

Let not future things disturb thee ; for thou wilt 
come to them, if it be necessary, having with thee 
the same reason which now thou usest for present 
things. — Marcus Aurelius. 

Adapt thyself to the things with which thy lot 
is cast. — Marcus Aurelius. 

Take away, then, when thou choosest, thy opin- 
ion ; and like a mariner who has doubled the prom- 
ontory, thou wilt find calm, everything stable, and 
a waveless bay. — Marcus Aurelius. 

God will not manifest himself to cowards. — 
Emerson. 



i8s 

Look round at the courses of the stars as if thou 
wert going along with them. — Marcus Aurelius. 

I will fear no evil. — David. 

Let the soul be assured that somewhere in the 
universe it should rejoin its friend, and it would be 
content and cheerful alone for a thousand years. — 
Emerson. 

This is not a misfortune ; but to bear it nobly is 
good fortune. — Marcus Aurelius. 

Consider thyself to be dead and to have com- 
pleted thy life up to the present time. — Marcus 
Aurelius. 

Let a man believe in God, and not in names, and 
places, and persons. — Emerson. 

It is very possible to be a divine man, and to be 
recognized as such by no one. — Marcus Aurelius. 

There is a guidance for each of us, and by lowly 
listening we shall hear the right word. — Emerson. 

In the same degree in which a man's mind is 
nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same 
degree also is it nearer to strength. — Marcus 
Aurelius. 

What I must do is all that concerns me, not 
what people think. — Emerson. 

Man cannot be happy and strong until he too 
lives with nature above time. — Emerson. 

And as the evening twilight fades away 

The night is filled with stars — invisible by day. 

— Longfellow. 



i86 

When I fall I shall arise ; when I sit in darkness 
the Lord shall be a light unto me. — Micah. 

Faith is the covenant or engagement between 
man's diviner part and his lesser self. — Light on 
the Path. 

There shall no evil befall thee^ neither shall any 
plague come nigh thy dwelling. — David. 



In the beautiful seclusion of our homes we may 
listen to sweet music, and look out through our 
windows upon the noisy, bustling crowd in the 
street below. 

We do not hear the tumult of the city ; we only 
see its movement, while those without are deaf to 
the melodies that delight our ears. Here are two 
worlds, one within the other, separated only by 
transparent glass, yet wholly distinct in aim and 
occupation, and with very different environment. 



XXXV. 
AN HONEST GRAVEYARD. 

" Death does not differ at all from life."— Thales 640 B.C. 

In Turkish cemeteries the stones are carved with 
the turban or head-dress of the deceased, to show 
the class or profession to which he belonged in life. 
In Christian cemeteries the monuments are often 
surmounted by the statue of an angel holding a 
crown or pointing to the skies. This is suggestive 
of a condition and a place to which the wildest 
flights of the imagination can seldom follow the 
individual interred beneath the stone. The inscrip- 
tion generally suggests an ideal rather than an 
actual character to those who really knew the de- 
parted one. 

If we could find a graveyard in which every stone 
and monument contained an honest record of the 
life and death of the deceased, what curious revela- 
tions we should have ! We are beginning to under- 
stand that death in any form is suicide ; This has al- 
ready been asserted by Charcot. We may truly 
claim that no one dies except as the result of his 
own thoughts and deeds; that death is a conse- 
quence, of which the cause has been always within 
the individual and subject to his own thought life. 



i88 

We are perfectly aware that, to many, such a 
proposition sounds absurd. It is as incredible as 
the theories of Copernicus and Galileo to the cen- 
tury in which they lived, and for precisely the same 
reason, — that it tends to revolutionize the theology 
and science that have been so long believed. 

But every fresh experience in either physical or 
mental science tends to confirm the theory of un- 
limited human responsibility by disclosing the 
power which man wields. 

With this thought in mind let us enter the hon- 
est graveyard where we have imagined truthful 
records carved upon the stones. 

Here we find that many men and women killed 
themselves with worry ; fretted themselves to death 
by their antagonism to the conditions in which they 
lived and for which they found no remedy. They 
were slain by the fears which they had nursed in 
their own breasts. The doctors called their trouble 
''nervous prostration" or ''pneumonia." 

Here are others that poisoned themselves by 
temper, which they never learned to govern. They 
lived in pride of their " strong wills." They were 
determined " never to be imposed upon." 

These had never learned that the only real sov- 
ereignty is that that comes from the mastery of self 
and the service of others. They resented every 
circumstance and person that came into their lives 
that they could not control. Their anger and im- 



i89 

patience brought them down at last with what was 
really a blood poisoning, though probably their 
death certificates named it ''heart failure," ''erysip- 
elas," "apoplexy." 

Here are many records of death from sensuality, 
yet they were very "nice" and "spiritual" people 
often, whose friends said they were victims to " con- 
sumption," or "cancer," without suspecting the real 
character of the consuming or cancerous thought of 
which they died. 

Egotism is written over most of the graves. In 
the extreme cases it was diagnosed as " insanity," or 
" melancholia." 

Disappointment, mortification, grief are the in- 
scriptions upon many monuments. They can be 
truly changed to atheism, distrust of good, fear of 
loss of position and influence, extreme selfishness. 
Yet many of these sufferers were loudly praised 
for their ambitions, their achievements, their " suc- 
cess," their affection, and their steadfastness to old 
beliefs. 

Here are some who died with paralysis, others of 
congestions, without a suspicion of the mental pa- 
ralysis which preceded the physical, or the ob- 
structed circulation which resisted every new 
thought and clung obstinately to its old prejudices 
and errors. 

Here are the remains of people who were blind, 
and deaf, and crippled. But the causes were really 
in their spiritual conditions. 



Here are others killed by '* accident." What 
but their own vibrations made it possible? Babes 
there are innumerable. But who knows the long 
journey they have traveled before they reached 
this point, or the accumulated causes, of which mor- 
tal friends caught only a brief glimpse in the earthly 
consequences ? 

Truly such a cemetery as this we have pictured 
would be a veritable school of suggestion. It 
would be a spiritual dissecting-room with valuable 
lessons in causes and consequences. 

We can no longer fear Death as a mysterious 
and invulnerable enemy, when we have torn off his 
muffled wrappings and revealed — ourselves. 



A world in the hand is worth two in the bush. 
Let us have to do with real men and women and 
not with skipping ghosts. — Emerson. 

^'^^ 

Every selfish thought and purpose tends to 
blind the spiritual perceptions and paralyze the 
spiritual powers. 

Egotism is a slow paralysis or a creeping palsy. 
Its extreme development is often in insanity and 
softening of the brain. 



XXXVI. 
SUICIDE: IS IT WORTH WHILE?* 

I am Knowledge Absolute, Thought Absolute, Bliss Ab- 
solute; I am IT, I am IT. — From the Vedas, 

There is a marked increase in the tendency to 
suicide. This tendency develops oftenest among 
men. They furnish more than two-thirds of the 
subjects, and are generally men of intelligence and 
in responsible positions. 

There is but one motive that can drive a man to 
suicide: it is fear. This incentive manifests itself 
in many different forms. It is generally a fear of 
the consequences of a man's own acts, — loss of 
reputation, property, health, or happiness. It is 
an act of supreme selfishness in any case. Suicide 
is evasion. It is not necessary to offer insanity as 
an excuse. If it were, we must admit that insanity 
itself is but the result of egotism. It proceeds 
from a morbid condition of mind, a danger to which 
we are all subject when our thoughts dwell too 
persistently upon ourselves, when we look in in- 
stead of out, — the danger of inverted thought. 

This can arise only from a misconception of life. 
The remedy lies in a fresh statement. We have 
lived too much in the marshlands and among the 
fogs. We have lingered too long in the cemeteries 

* Reprinted by permission from The Arena. 



192 

of dead faiths. We have been led astray by the 
fireflies and ignes fatui of false ambitions. 

Every individual is a complete judicial system, 
an autonomy within himself. He is his own law- 
maker, prosecutor, judge, and jury. We are our 
own jailers. We apply our own thumbscrews. 
We stretch ourselves upon the racks, and handle 
the levers. It is not **fate," nor "Providence," 
nor " circumstances " from which we suffer. There 
is no despot but self. Every act of a man's life is 
sooner or later passed upon by his own conscience. 
All expiations will be assessed and painfully worked 
out by and for himself with perfect equity. He 
governs in his own system myriads of cell life, 
microbes and elementals, each endowed with an 
intelligence of its own, but subject to his rule. 
This is the true field for the discipline of his powers 
before he seeks dominion over others. In his own 
kingdom he must learn to reign supreme. His 
purified will must be accepted as law by the sub- 
jects of his personal realm, his own body and own 
mind. 

Life is flexible and is shaped by our thoughts. 
Man is at the same time a pupil and an architect. 
Let him accept the proposition that all things 
work together for good, and he will find abundant 
confirmation of it in his daily experience. When 
we humor our weaknesses they force themselves 
continually upon our attention, like spoiled chil- 



193 

dren. When we assert our mastery of ourselves 
and compel its recognition, we stand secure in our 
sovereign rights. 

The supreme folly of the suicide is in the delu- 
sion that by breaking the slate he can solve his 
problem or escape it. He may for a time attempt 
the role of truant from life's school, but, like the 
schoolboy, he only delays his task and complicates 
it. Sometime, somewhere (and doubtless sooner 
and nearer than he thinks), these problems of to- 
day must be worked out. There is no reason 
whatever to suppose that any lesson of life can be 
really evaded. Dame Nature is an honest and ex- 
pert accountant. Her debits and credits are kept 
with unerring accuracy. She hersejf meets every 
obligation promptly, and in her turn exacts the 
same of us, and will not be cheated of her dues. 
How can we be so stupid as not to see that this 
planetary schoolroom is very beautiful indeed, and 
contains every appliance helpful to our education } 
What apparatus is lacking, and where could we 
find more delightful and entertaining classmates } 
How unreasonable to whine continually about a 
distant heaven, like a homesick schoolboy crying 
for his holiday ! Why not improve the golden op- 
portunity of the class-room, and the buoyant life of 
the playground with the keen zest of a wholesome, 
healthy nature ? 



194 

" The world is so full of a number of things, 
I am sure we ought all to be happy as kings." 

To the mature and well-balanced mind every 
moment of existence is the best, every present plan 
and circumstance is the one most favorable to its 
purpose. It looks neither forward nor backward, 
knows no longings or regrets, experiences neither 
elation nor depression. It simply lives^ and life is 
gladness, strength, and peace. 

Life is often called a voyage. Yet on a voyage 
one would scarcely fling himself overboard because 
of a foggy day. It has been truly said that ** he 
is a bad sailor who thinks there is no land because 
he sees nothing but ocean." A good sailor is in- 
different to weather. He is as confident in storm 
as in calm, for is he not equipped with nautical 
education, experience, and instruments adapted to 
all the emergencies of the voyage 1 If the heavens 
are clouded above, he sails by sounding the depths 
below. He has learned the science of " dead reck- 
oning," and he knows no fear. He remembers that 

"That night is long that never finds the day." 

We often speak of life as a hard taskmaster and 
as something we should be glad to have done 
with. We call it an illusion and a dream. But we 
are beginning to learn (and every discovery of 
science emphasizes the fact) that death is the only 
"illusion," and that life in ever varying form goes 



195 

on forever. We cannot put it away from us. No 
man can be really burned, drowned, frozen, or 
buried. He may change his garment, but he mitst 
live on. Through all experiences he comes un- 
scathed, untouched, and conscious still. 

Doubtless among the greatest surprises that 
await us in the future is the realization, with a 
clearer vision than we possess today, that life is 
infinitely kind and tender, and wonderfully wise in 
its adaptation of our experience to our necessities. 
We shall yet admit that it has been a skillful sur- 
geon, performing the necessary operation as gently 
as we would permit, and alleviating to the utmost 
the pains of the sufferer. Life itself inflicts no 
pain upon us. All suffering comes from within. 
It proceeds from the inharmonious conditions of 
our own souls. No pang can endure beyond the 
moment when we have restored harmonious vibra- 
tion to the mind, — have adjusted our own relations 
to people and events. The necessary and infallible 
result of mental harmony is health of body, opulence 
of environment, and love of friends. 

Love is the keynote of life. Its harmonies are 
sublime. It is a magnet of irresistible power 
which draws to us all things desirable. 

Destiny there surely is, but it is a consequence 
of an inner cause. It is not the arbitrary govern- 
ment of another intelligence. 

When one is lost in the forest, and the night 



196 

comes on, it is wise to " camp down " and wait for 
morning. The old huntsman makes himself com- 
fortable by the bivouac fire and lies down cheer- 
fully, knowing well that if he were to keep in 
motion he might only travel in a circle and exhaust 
himself in vain. Is not this a wise suggestion for 
all hours of uncertainty in relation to the affairs 
of life .-^ We must not be ^^ driven." When we 
cannot act we must learn the science of waiting, 
and of waiting cheerfully and confidently, beside 
our bivouac fires. We need not wait in the 
darkness. A few dry boughs, a flint and steel, 
will bring us warmth and light, and daybreak 
is never far away. A little further on, when the 
planet has traveled a bit further in its revolution 
toward the sun, how differently will appear the 
problems of the night. A little distance only is 
necessary to evolve harmony from any discord. 
Nature skillfully readjusts and blends all the vibra- 
tions of life in her atmospheres, transforming all 
to rhythmic chords. Even the deafening noises of 
the boiler shop, with its hundreds of busy ham- 
mers, are turned into a symphony to the listener 
just across the field. 

If we were to dwell long upon the fact that we 
live in our mortal bodies under a constant atmos- 
spheric pressure of fifteen pounds to the square 
inch we should feel crushed and suffocated. Why 
do we not suffer ? Because the resisting power of 



197 

the atmosphere within is always equal to the pres- 
sure from without. We are permeated and upheld 
by the same force that surrounds and overhangs 
us. So in our life of daily responsibility. When 
we consider only the care that comes from without 
we feel under constant and violent pressure. When 
we remember that we live in good we know that 
the universal force can never fail us. It works 
constantly in and through us as tireless energy. 
The human life is as real and important a thing in 
its orbit as the planetary life of which it is a part. 
In a sense we ourselves do not breathe. The uni- 
versal life breathes through us. We do not carry 
the world on our shoulders. It is the pressure 
within and without that maintains our centre of 
gravity and makes life possible and pleasurable. 

God, Love, and Life are synonyms. Each 
comprehends the other, and is a complete term 
for the Infinite Energy. We are each a part of 
the life-blood of the universal system. We are a 
part of its sensoria and ganglia. 

In the great ocean of life we do not need any 
artificial life-preservers. The depth is so great it 
has incalculable buoyancy. We cannot sink. We 
need not struggle. Every man is by nature a 
swimmer. Fear often delays the discovery for 
years. Many a man goes down in sight of shore 
because he does not know how to throw himself on 
his back and wait quietly for the relief just at hand. 



198 

Any day of life, any moment of time, may be 
made the starting point of success. Let us "re- 
joice as a strong man to run a race." 

And should the twih'ght darken into night, 

And sorrow grow to anguish, 

Be thou strong, — thou art in God, 
And nothing can go wrong which a fresh life-pulse 

Cannot set aright; 
That thou dost know the darkness proves the light. 

The winds and clouds are the transitory and un- 
substantial phases of nature. Back of them are 
the great enveloping atmospheres of earth and the 
fixed orb of the sun. 

In spiritual correspondence if we regard the 
opinions of men and the apparent obstructions of 
the passing hour instead of the realities of truth, we 
must always fail of progress. We will be forever 
living in the externals or environments, forgetting 
the great unseen forces which govern all the move- 
ment of life. 

Truth is the searchlight which illuminates the 
road we have passed over and the way that lies be- 
fore us. We can flash it upon every part of the 
horizon. We need not stumble in the darkness, 
nor wander uncertainly and aimlessly, as in the 
days when we depended on a tallow dip that 
scarcely showed us where to set our feet. 

We may move on confidently. We will not miss 
the road. 



XXXVII. 
PRESENT IMMORTALITY. 

We grizzle every day. I see no need of it. Whilst we 
converse with what is above us we do not grow old but 
young. — Emerson. 

Everyman is a divinity in disguise: A god playing the 
fool. — Einerson. 

The greatest discovery of the nineteenth century 
is man's discovery of himself, the recognition of the 
fact that he possesses all the powers which he has 
ascribed to God ; that they are natural and latent, 
awaiting his development and not the supernatural 
acquirement of a future state. 

We no longer speak of being "imprisoned in the 
body," because we know that the less cannot con- 
tain the greater, and that we are no more in the 
body than in any other tool that we have made and 
use for our own purposes. 

We do not repeat in our confessions of faith as 
formerly, ** It is he that has made us and not we 
ourselves," because we have learned that the exact 
reverse of this is true. 

We drop the old phrase, "Life is too short," when 
once convinced that it is within our power to 
lengthen it at will. 

We do not recognize our traditional limitations. 



200 

It has instead become an axiom that any purpose 
man is capable of forming he is capable of carrying 
to fulfillment. 

We have begun to study as a science the new- 
dogma of present immortality. 

We do not. now hang our harps on willow trees, 
even figuratively. We have taken them down and 
begun to tune them to the symphonies of nature 
instead of Hebrew lamentations. 

We are not " exiles " weeping when we remem- 
ber Zion, and praying for release from " captivity." 

We have emancipated ourselves and find good 
reason to believe that we are quite at home in the 
planet earth and have nothing to gain by leaving it. 
We do not sigh for liberty since we have learned 
that we possess it. We do not talk of poverty 
since we have come to know that we are preferred 
stockholders in a universe of good with cumulative 
dividends subject to sight draft. 

These dividends are real and can be cashed and 
materialized at pleasure. 

The beautiful discoveries that have come through 
spiritualism have given us the actual experience of 
multitudes who have passed through death, enabling 
us to know for the first time the real character of 
what we have always called the ''life beyond." 

This knowledge has revolutionized our former 
thought. It has shown us the operation of the law of 
cause and consequence. It has proved that " What- 



20] 



soever a man soweth that shall he also reap." It 
has made it plain that we live in a universe governed 
throughout by perfect laws that work with entire 
equity and marvelous accuracy in all places and 
conditions. It has shown life to be progressive, and 
confirmed the theory of evolution. It has iden- 
tified the life of spirit with the life of mortal, the 
hereafter with the here, and taught us to study ex- 
istence as a problem of the now. Perhaps the 
most important result of all is to destroy the sophis- 
try of living for the future by showing that death 
itself leaves us unchanged, that it adds nothing to 
us and takes nothing away. It only brings us to a 
larger consciousness of life. 

This consciousness may be developed now, with 
all the knowledge and power we have associated 
with the ''spirit spheres." 

We need not wait for supernatural opportunities 
or gifts. 

We know that the only crown we will ever re- 
ceive is the crown of character, and that it is ours 
as soon as we choose to wear it. 

Happiness will not come by dying. We arise 
from death as we arise from sleep, — to face our own 
old selves. The problem ever remains the same. If 
we idle away our days we will find our '' treasures 
in heaven " do not keep us from the sufferings of 
poverty in that ideal sphere, and that the problem still 
confronts us after death, — how to work out our sal- 



202 



vation. We have not escaped it as we idly fancied. 
It was only postponed. The task becomes more 
difficult, as is always the case with a neglected 
duty. 

As intelligent beings we can no longer speak of 
what awaits us in the spirit life with the old doubts 
and questionings. It has to a great extent ceased 
to be a speculation, as much so as the character of 
any country with which we are made familiar 
through the reports of travelers. It is the mark 
of a narrow mind today to be uninformed in the 
philosophy and facts that spiritualism has revealed 
so clearly. No person claiming to be intelligent 
can fairly plead such ignorance. 

We need all the light of the new day that has 
dawned. We have been living in the revelations 
of a remote past and among the tombs of old " be- 
liefs." 

Immortality in the flesh is only learning to keep 
on our feet a little longer or lie down at will, in- 
stead of being tumbled over through not knowing 
how to adjust ourselves to the law of gravitation, to 
keep the line of direction within the base. 

The race is still in its infancy and creeping when 
it ought to walk. 

The folly is in saying we were not intended to 
walk. 

The world is already flooded with the light of the 
resurrection morning. 



203 

The stone is rolled away at last from the mouth 
of the sepulchre. Let us awake and arise. The 
last enemy has been overcome. It remains only to 
enjoy the fruits of the great victory. 

God screens us evermore from premature ideas. Our eyes 
are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face 
until the hour arrives that the mind is ripened. Then we 
behold them, and the time that we saw them not is like a 
dream. — Emerson. 



XXXVIII. 
THE DASH FOR LIBERTY. 

We have discovered that disease is the result of 
misdirected thought, an inverted current turned 
upon ourselves with a force of which we have but 
little comprehension. 

The remedy lies in realization of the universal 
life and our personal relation to it. We must 
change our mental polarity, demagnetize our 
thought. 

We too often call ourselves and one another " pris- 
oners of poverty," ''creatures of circumstances," 
"victims" of "injustice" or "disease." 

All our prisons are mental. Truth gives us the 
pass-key to all doors, the control of all environ- 
ment, deliverance from all injustice and dis- 
ease. 

Freedom comes only through full recognition and 
admission of truth. 

"Who would be free, himself must strike the blow." 

When a prisoner has dug through the wall of his 
cell, it remains for him to "make a break" for lib- 
erty. If his courage fails him at this point, all the 
months of weary toil removing stone and mortar 
count for nothing. It has only been in preparation 



205 

for this hour. High walls are yet to be scaled. 
Guards with loaded guns must be evaded or en- 
countered. 

These are literally trying ** circumstances " to 
be overcome. 

What will the man give for his freedom now ? 

This is precisely the point to which comes every 
follower of the Science of Mind. He has spent 
months in breaking through his mental prison 
walls. His jailers are named Prejudice, Disease, 
or Poverty. They are embodied in his personal 
conditions, — the ''circumstances" of his life, — 
which he likes to think offer peculiar difficulties in 
his case. 

Will he have the courage now to make the dash 
for liberty.? He has been creeping slowly toward 
the light. The hour has come for a supreme test 
of his newly adopted principles. 

Will he throw off his last fear, forget the past, 
risk all, and leap boldly forward to complete emanci- 
pation f 



XXXIX. 

STRONG SWIMMERS. 

" Diving and finding no pearls in the sea, 
Blame not the ocean, the fault is in thee." 
Truth is our element of life. — Emerson. 

When we are ready to learn to swim we go into 
deep water, where we cannot touch the bottom and 
are "beyond our depth." We lie over gently and 
strike out, with confidence in the buoyancy of the 
sea and our power to keep afloat and direct our 
movements. 

From that hour "wading" has lost its charms. 
We no longer care to hold each other's hands and 
jump up and down — making believe we are en- 
joying an ocean bath while choking with brine and 
nervous with the roar of the surf. We have found 
out that the quiet waters lie beyond the breakersy 
and that the greater the depth the easier for the 
swimmer. 

We have become indifferent to the sight of shore 
or touch of bottom. 

The strong swimmer is fearless. If he is 
wearied, he will float. He can diversify his 
stroke, swim on his back, tread water, dive, do 
anything but sink. 

And what a glorious life electrifies him ! What 



207 

a sense of power over the new element, gained 
simply through his fearlessness ! His movements 
are all natural and free. 

Many of us venture into spiritual thought with 
something of the same anxiety we feel in taking 
our first surf bath. We hold to one another's 
hands and shout as the waves roll in. 

We wet our feet and wade in shallow water. 
Perhaps we get into a bathing machine, and are 
pushed out among the wavelets by a *' course of 
lessons," or possibly we even venture with the 
corks. But what do we know of the glorious ardor 
of the confident swimmer in the deep seas beyond 
the breakers, with only the great, buoyant waters 
underneath, the beautiful blue sky with fleecy clouds 
above us, and the sea gulls circling about. 

Would we exchange the exhilaration of such 
an hour of strong and gladsome solitude for the 
companionship of the throngs of promenaders on 
the beach or the bathers in the pools ? 

We are only wading yet in the new thought, and 
many are simply shivering on the sands. The hid- 
den treasures of the deep are but faintly suggested 
by the fragments strewn along the shore. 

We are slowly awakening to the realization of 
our power, and of the infinite depth and riches of 
that which is our native element, in which we have 
our being. Let us cast fear to the winds, and 
know ourselves as buoyant swimmers. We have 



208 

no need to sight the shore or touch the bottom of 
the Sea of Truth. 



^' In thy presence is fulness of joy." This should 
give us the keynote of existence. We expect the 
joy as the result of what we call "success." We 
think we can be happy when our purpose is 
accomplished. 

Let us reverse our methods, and expect the " suc- 
cess " as the result of the joyful mind in which we 
live. 

Let us look for the fulfillment of our purpose 
because of the happiness in which we work. A 
joyful spirit radiates a clear atmosphere, in which 
we can see afar ; an anxious mind befogs us. 

There can never be an honest excuse for worry, 
though no one ever lacks occasion for it. There 
are no conditions of life possible where we need be 
joyless after we have learned life's meaning, and 
opened our eyes to the presence of the everlast- 
ing good in which we live. 

Life then becomes a continual feast. Until then 
we are paupers, even though our poverty is hidden 
by what the world calls "wealth." 



209 

The "rich" have many sorrows. No poverty 
of any sort can spring from spiritual life. 
It is fulness of joy. 

There is somewhat low even in Hope. — Emer- 
son. 

Hope is certainly to be preferred to despair. 
But at the best it is only a mental bromide which 
tends to quiet our anxieties, aroused by fear. 

It is a makeshift, after all, and could find no rai- 
son d' etre except for our timidity. It is not a food 
essence, though it may act as a temporary stimu- 
lant. The normal constitution never requires 
stimulants or desires opiates. A healthy mind 
feels itself abundantly able to control and sustain 
the body without artificial aids. 

Why, then, should we cultivate hope when a 
simple understanding of life endows us with the 
knowledge that no ill can befall us 1 When we 
get close to the heart of nature we gain the confi- 
dence of assurance. We know that the universal 
forces are unlimited, and furthermore, that we can 
draw on them at will. This leaves no standing 
ground for any fear, and consequently no use for 
hope, its antidote. 

We are not saved by hope. We are saved by 
knowledge, which comes to us always from within 
ourselves. 



210 



It is a common error of belief of the novitiate 
in Mental Science that it is necessary for him to 
watch his thoughts and *' treat himself," in order 
to maintain his equipoise in righteous living. 

The habit of mental dosing is quite as pernicious 
as that of the pills and powders of the past. It 
draws the thought to self, when the very essence 
of all healing is to demagnetize such thought, and 
lead it to merge itself in the Universal Life with 
absolute repose and confidence. Our health is 
found in the thought of the unity of the Supreme 
Being, with the infinite diversities of its expression. 
This is harmony. 

The sailor on the masthead feels no dizziness 
when he looks off into the blue above him. If he 
looks down upon the tossing deck of his little craft 
he often ''loses his head" and falls. We must 
learn to enlarge our horizon ; to look aloft ; to take 
in the grand sweep of the arc, of which we find 
ourselves a part ; to enlarge our definitions of 
''today" to include an infinite past with an infi- 
nite future ; to dwell upon the buoyancy of the 
shoreless ocean, in which we are afloat, and of the 
boundless ether, in which we are learning to use 
our wings. 



XL. 

POVERTY AS A DISEASE. 

Wisdom is better than rubies. — Solomon. 
Truth alone makes rich and great. — Emerson, 

One of the most subtle fallacies of the day is the 
common belief that wealth is power. Wealth is 
not power ; it is only an evidence of power. The 
ruby is a precious stone, but the wisdom that dis- 
covers and extracts it from its native rock is of in- 
comparably greater value. The same wisdom can 
discover and produce other precious gems. The 
producer is always greater than the thing produced. 
Truth is the great producer, and is the first cause 
of all riches and greatness. 

For many centuries King Solomon has stood as 
the type of wealth and wisdom. It is related of 
him that he was offered the choice of supreme good 
in any form he might desire. He simply asked for 
wisdom. In consequence of that possession, but 
not as a reward of merit, as has so long been 
taught, his wealth and power became truly fabu- 
lous. For centuries, also, we have read the teach- 
ing of the Nazarene : " Seek ye first the kingdom 
of God and his righteousness, and all these things 
shall be added unto you." And again, in the words 
of the great apostle : "Godliness is profitable unto 



212 



all things, having promise of the life that now is^ 
and of that which is to come." Yet we have con- 
tinued to associate disease and poverty with godli- 
ness. We have ascribed them to the mysteries of 
a *' Divine Providence," and even professed to be- 
lieve them necessary to the evolution of righteous- 
ness. 

We are only just beginning to open our eyes to 
the fact that poverty and disease spring from the 
same cause, and are subject to the same remedy. 
We are beginning to admit that both cause and 
remedy are within the individual himself, and pro- 
ceed from a condition of mind. We have satisfied 
and excused ourselves with theories of ''heredity" 
and "environment," and ''circumstances" have 
often served as a scapegoat. 

It is, perhaps, a bold and radical position to de- 
clare that poverty and disease are crimes, for which 
the sufferer is alone responsible ; yet it is true that 
they are crimes, — of ignorance. We do not find 
the average mind willing to accept any imputed in- 
crease of responsibility, after a habit of dismissing 
it with the thought of "Providence," "fate," "des- 
tiny," or "accident." We have discovered in the 
study of the science of mind that the only real 
healing can be developed from the foundation of a 
teaching of personal responsibility, resulting from 
the absolute freedom of the individual. Man is 
free ; hence he is responsible. Man is responsible ; 



213 

hence he must be free. In a logica.1 philosophy of 
hfe, we cannot admit either proposition without the 
other. If man is free, then he must always have 
been free ; else the responsibility would be lessened 
by every moment of bondage in the past which 
must to some degree have weakened him. 

Mental Science claims that every disease is but 
thought externalized. It produces health by cor- 
recting the thought. Experience has certainly 
justified the theory. In the same way, it follows 
that a diseased or uncomfortable environment must 
also be mind externalized, and can be remedied 
only from within. This is contrary to the popular 
thought and method, which always attack exter- 
nals and exhaust themselves in frantic endeavors 
to win fortune by grappling with material con- 
ditions. What are the results of such efforts .'* 
The large majority of men fail altogether, and disas- 
trously. A few accumulate the fortune, but with- 
out the satisfaction that had been expected to 
accompany it. It is not actually possessed by its 
reputed owner, but rather possesses him. It proves 
to be a fickle master. " Fickle fortune " is the sig- 
nificant title of worldly riches. " Misfortune," 
perhaps, would as well define them, judging them 
by their fruits ; for they are painfully gained, fre- 
quently at the sacrifice of health, honor, and affec- 
tion, and retained through anxiety, or easily lost. 

When we study nature we find ourselves im- 



214 

pressea with a great power, not with a great 
effort. Nature accomplishes her aims easily ; her 
processes are agreeable. Their results are always 
found in the evolution of better things and higher 
types. Nature shows a marvelous prodigality in all 
directions, and a fertility of resource which to our 
narrow minds seems incomprehensible. Opulence 
is her crown and sceptre. She does not struggle 
to obtain or to hold it. It is her possession by 
divine right. It is not a gift, nor a reward, nor a 
wage. It is the keynote of her divine harmonies. 
Why, then, are we, in our humanity, so sadly out 
of tune ? Is it not because we have not studied 
harmony.-* We have not learned the score. We 
have been cramped and mean in thought. We have 
been cowardly and selfish in spirit and action. We 
have reversed the teaching of the truth, and sought 
first the things we wished "added unto " us, prom- 
ising ourselves that afterward we would " seek the 
kingdom of God and His righteousness." We have 
foolishly imagined that the '^ things " applied to this 
life and the " righteousness " to another. We have 
failed to comprehend the statement as a scientific 
law, and have dismissed it as a "moral" law, with 
which, perhaps, we were little concerned. We 
have postponed heaven as a factor of what we called 
eternity, and failed to realize that time and eternity 
are really one. In our silly definitions of life, we 
have overlooked life's unity. 



215 

Now, however, we are beginning to study the 
alphabet aright. We find that when we get into 
words of one syllable, past and present are merged 
into the "now;" that cause and result are in our- 
selves, and that reward and punishment are only 
synonyms for consequences. Loss and gain are 
impossible to those who possess all things in truth. 
Finally we discover that environment and fortune 
are simply indications of our state of mind. These 
can be changed by setting up for ourselves new 
standards, and making fresh statements of the 
principles of life. Discord cannot result from 
the right interpretation of the notes of a master 
in harmony. A good tree cannot bring forth evil 
fruit. Disease and poverty are not expressions of 
an enlightened mind. We cannot associate either 
with an infinite goodness, nor conceive of a supreme 
power without opulence. The attempt to do this 
is the source of all scepticism and atheism. The 
nobility of the human mind revolts at so unworthy 
a conception of Deity. 

Can we wonder at the failure of ecclesiasticism, 
after a struggle of eighteen centuries based upon a 
sterile and ascetic philosophy, with its grotesque 
idea of supreme good ? The growing light of the 
present day exposes the veneering of religious sys- 
tems which easily satisfied the twilight of the Dark 
Ages. We insist upon a larger interpretation of 
life. We are content no longer to creep through 



2l6 



our earthly paradise like worms, or to crawl upon 
all-fours. We are not willing to prostrate ourselves 
before the idols of churchly superstition, and to de- 
base ourselves before persons and places claiming 
to be holy. At last we have found our feet. We 
stand upright, with eyes uplifted to the sun and 
stars, ears attuned to the symphonies of the gods, 
and every sense open to the glories of the here 
and now. We recognize in ourselves the likeness 
of Divinity, — the God of health, freedom, and 
opulence. In wisdom we find independence and 
truth, — the royal road to health and power, — 
and know that comfort and success in life depend 
on spiritual perception. 

"Ye are not bound ; the soul of things is sweet; 
The heart of Being is celestial rest. 
Stronger than woe is will; that which is good 
Doth pass to better — best." 

To prepare ourselves for the best conditions for 
attracting opulence, we must first be rid of the 
eagerness of desire. A feverish mind is not a 
good magnet. The point of equilibrium is the be- 
ginning of success, for it is at that point we realize 
that material wealth is not in itself an element of 
happiness. Unhappiness comes always from a fail- 
ure to discern the right relations of things. To 
the infantile mind it might appear that the object 
of kindergarten life was found in the accumulation 
of bright-colored toys ; but later the toys stand as 



21/ 

tools for teaching principles. To the undeveloped 
adult ''riches" are often like the colored toys of the 
kindergarten, — mistaken as the aim of life, rather 
than understood as its tools and illustrations. 

Unhappiness is of the mind, and is governed from 
within. When this lesson has been learned, we 
have reached a point of independence never known 
before. We have been demagnetized of the greed of 
gold. We are ready to find it but a simple instru- 
ment, and only one of many. We are confident that 
it has no influence upon ourselves. It cannot deflect 
us from the line of principle. We are polarized to 
truth. Wealth is now our servant, not our master ; 
and what we draw to ourselves we cannot lose. 
We have learned that hope and fear are of the 
emotional, not the spiritual, plane. They cannot 
exist where spiritual growth has reached the plane 
of knowledge. 

True knowledge is not subject to emotional 
vibrations, with their alternations of elation and 
depression. Every one of us, as Emerson says, is 
"dear to the heart of Being." Every one of us 
is God's chosen, and none of us is ever forgotten 
or overlooked. We are never denied anything 
we really crave. The power to wish and the 
power to execute are one and the same. All 
things are ours as soon as we recognize and 
appropriate from the universal life. This is 
done without cost or deprivation to our neighbor. 



2l8 

We need not beg or supplicate when we live in the 
midst of plenty. What are millions of money 
when we remember the teeming fecundity of life, 
and realize that as yet we have not begun to mine 
for the precious metals, but have only scratched 
the surface of one of the smallest planets of the 
system ? 

Those who pride themselves upon superiority in 
wealth or position have no better basis for their 
claims than the pebbles on the beach, which might 
be supposed to plume themselves on being better 
than their neighbors because of their larger size. 
Yet they will not endure longer, nor even take a 
higher polish, as the waves roll them around to- 
gether. And how microscopically small do they 
appear when measured by the towering cliffs above 
them, of which they are only tiny fragments ! 
Truly, to such pride we may say that **all is 
vanity." 

We have no riches except in ourselves, no power 
except as we develop self-government. All else is 
illusion, like the tinsel of the stage. Every desire 
is its own prediction of fulfillment. Even those 
things that are hurtful are not kept beyond our 
reach. As Lowell wittily says : " It must be that 
the framework of the universe is fireproof, or the 
Almighty would not have left so many Lucifer 
matches lying around loose." " God " and ** gold " 



219 

are differentiated by one letter only, but the addi- 
tion of that one letter shuts out God. We do not 
need the gold to make God possible. Yet " God," 
and ''gold," and ''good" are all closely allied, as 
expressions of one universal principle. 

The remedy for suffering from either disease or 
poverty is to enter into the sweep of the great tides 
of life in their irresistible flow, knowing that their 
movement is one of perfect harmony. In their 
larger currents, all thought or care for the per- 
sonal self and its illusions is carried away. Peace 
flows in wherever these tides govern. There can 
no longer be any thought of loss or gain, for the 
soul knows that all is well, and that life is simply 
Being. Its environment is not a real factor in its 
problems. Time and place are results, not causes; 
they are but tide-marks, having nothing whatever 
to do with the flowing of the waters. 

Until a man has become wholly independent and 
careless of his environments, he has not learned to 
live. When he has reached that point of develop- 
ment, he finds that it is the point at which he 
absolutely controls and directs his own surround- 
ings as the result of his spiritual progress. " He 
that findeth his life shall loose it." "He that looseth 
his life . . . shall find it." We first love it and 
lose it in the fashion of mortals, and thus we learn 
to "loose," or to let go of it, for truth's sake; 
thereby entering into newness of life, which can 



220 

never be taken away from us. Adjustment of our- 
selves is the secret of happiness and opulence, not 
the adjustment of circumstances. The second is 
the result of the first ; together they are cause and 
consequence. 

Every man is his own destiny. No happiness is 
secure as long as it depends to the slightest degree 
upon anything or any person outside of ourselves. 
It is well worth the price, if we lose all we think 
we have possessed, and are thus awakened to the 
fact so often stated, that *' the kingdom of God is 
within," while we have been always expecting it 
from without. There is no real possession possible 
until after we have attained self-possession. When 
this has been accomplished, we will know that we 
cannot fail to win or to hold anything belonging to 
us, and life will manifest affluence. 

" The stars come nightly to the sky, 
The tidal wave unto the sea; 
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, 
Can keep my own away from me." 

As Emerson declares, in his essay on '' Spiritual 

Laws :" 

"What a man does, that he has. What has he to do 
with hope or fear? In himself is his might. Let him re- 
gard no good as sohd but that which is in his nature, and 
which must grow out of him as long as he exists. The goods 
of fortune may come and go Hke summer leaves. Let him 
play with them and scatter them on every wind as the mo- 
mentary signs of his infinite productiveness." 



221 



*^ Circumstances " is a good word when rightly 
applied. 

We are neither the creature nor the slave of 
circumstances, though we have been taught to 
think so. 

Circumstances have their rise within us, — 
always. 

They are reactionary conditions which hold us 
to our orbits till we have consciously become their 
master by the recognition of our own divine intelli- 
gence and power. 



XLI. 
OPULENCE THROUGH GROWTH. 

Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good 
fortune.— Walt Whitman. 

Undeniably it is the inner life which is master of the outer, 
just as a man's brain guides the movements of his lips. — 
Light on the Path. 

No two men are exactly alike ; the same is true 
of their works. 

From the foundry to the machine shop no two 
parts can be produced that are really duplicates in 
every minute point. In consequence, every steam 
engine has its own particular conditions under 
which it can attain its greatest power. 

The engineer must have an intimate personal 
acquaintance with his machine to learn to '' speed 
it," to the best advantage. 

Every individual has his own particular vibration, 
or ^*rate of speed," which enters into his every act 
and determines the method in all his works. Hence 
the necessity of absolute freedom to obtain the best 
results. 

We should not wish to compel others to the ac- 
ceptance of our thoughts or methods. Each in- 
stinctively finds his rate of speed, or keynote. 
The process is often an unconscious one. 



223 

A bigot is one who insists that his own opinions 
shall be accepted as the standard of truth. It is very 
easy to imagine that we are wiser than our neigh- 
bors. 

Let us enlarge our world by expanding ourselves. 

The alphabet has only twenty-six letters, yet we 
,find them sufficient to spell over three hundred 
thousand words and express an infinite range of 
thought. 

Between the ignorant peasant to whom three or 
four hundred words are a sufficient vocabulary for 
his simple wants, and the mature scholar who 
draws^upon an unabridged dictionary and daily coins 
new words for his especial use, the difference is 
only one of unfoldment; we call it "education." 
The alphabet is sufficient for both, but their re- 
quirements of language are in proportion to their 
experience of life. 

All mankind has endless opportunity. Our limi- 
tations are always those we make ourselves. Life 
itself has no bounds, no walls, no doors. It can 
maintain no secrets or monopolies. 

We may dismiss our fear of ''trusts " and "syn- 
dicates." The peasant does not cry out against 
the scholar because of his larger thought and speech. 

The scholar is the master and compiler of a dic- 
tionary. He wields a power of language far beyond 
the small attainments of the ignorant mind, but he 
is no monopolist of educational advantages, no more 



224 

than of the air and water. He should not be an 
object of suspicion and disHke because of his greater 
knowledge. 

Life is perfect freedom, perfect equity. All our 
suffering and deprivation come from our interior 
conditions. When we have accepted this great 
truth we will treat causes, and not symptoms, in 
our political and social economics. 

We call ourselves ''practical" while leaving out 
of the statement of our problems the great factors 
of God, of man as his image, and of the countless 
spiritual intelligences whom we draw to us from 
the unseen through the law of sympathetic vibra- 
tion. All these influences are interested in the 
accomplishment of our highest good. 

What have we to do with ''hard times" when 
we realize that we have no obstructions, no delays, 
and no antagonists, — that all things help us on our 
road ? 

•We make our own postponements needlessly. 
Nothing can hold our ships down when the tides 
come in. The tides are subject to our command. 
They are not governed by public or private " con- 
ditions." They are created by the mind and are 
only the manifestations of its moods. 

" Let a man, then, know his worth and keep 
things under his feet." 

It is the crookedness of our ways that makes life 
so difficult. 



225 

We are out of harmony with the divine Self. 
We evade and flinch from the truth for the want of 
confidence in the Eternal. We think our little 
managing ways are necessary to what we call " suc- 
cess " in "this world" and under ''existing con- 
ditions of society." We do not feel the ground 
firm under us, because we do not trust in Prmciple. 
If in our physical walking we should pick and 
mince our steps thus painfully we would soon lose 
the use of our feet. Spiritual paralysis is just as 
sure to follow this cowardly anxiety in the affairs of 
life. '' Neither be ye of doubtful mind " contains 
a whole volume of practical scientific philosophy. 

Riches and poverty are not arbitrary factors of 
experience, as popularly supposed. Like heaven 
and hell they are states of mind which may exter- 
nalize themselves upon any and all planes. 

Fortune often presents herself in mask and 
domino. She tries her candidates unknown to 
them. Before she dispenses her bounties she 
wants to ascertain their fitness to be intrusted 
with her treasures. Perhaps we fail oftener in 
such examination than we know. But we cannot 
really miss our work or opportunity. 

When we are truly ready the hour strikes, the 
scales fall from our eyes, we find ourselves before 
the festal board. Our seat is prepared and waiting 
for us. Meanwhile let us be employed in helping 
to feed others, and forget that we are hungry. 



226 

We will not belittle ourselves by asking the 
invitation we would so much enjoy. We will not 
go up the back stairs to Fortune's dwelling. 
When we enter her mansion it must be with head 
erect, because we have been sought as worthy 
guests. We will not beg a place at the feast. 

The longings for fame, for wealth or knowledge 
in themselves are equally morbid and selfish. 

When these things come to us as solid realities and 
not as shadows, it is because they are the legitimate 
fruits of a true life. Then only do we possess the 
peace which they can neither give nor take away. 
They do not come within the realm of causation. 

We have no reason to be afraid of wealth. 

We do not limit the air we breathe, or measure 
the food we eat. We are not afraid of too much 
health. Why should we limit ourselves in opu- 
lence ? We want all we can use to the advantage 
of ourselves and others. 

Our capacity of unfoldment is unlimited. The 
possibilities of wealth have not been conceived. 
When we begin to learn their true significance and 
uses upon the lines of spiritual mathematics, it 
changes all our former propositions in political 
economy. 

We are beginning to construct our theories of 
life anew. We are engaged in larger problems. 
We do not need to throw away any of the factors, 
but only to change their relation to each other, and 
to ourselves. 



22/ 

There is a great difference between growing an 
orchard and robbing one. 

We must grow into realization of opulence, and 
not seek it through robbing others, even by the 
approved and conventional methods of dishonesty. 

No leaf upon the tree excludes another from 
the light and air. The winds minister to all alike. 

True opulence is always the result of the growth 
of the soul. It is a real and lasting possession, and 
includes far more than we have ever yet imagined 
in our largest dreams. 

We treat God as if He were cashier of a penny 
savings bank with very small deposits to our credit, 
which we have accumulated at infinite pains and 
must be very careful in expending. The petty 
drafts we make are too absurd for reasonable men 
and women who are continually prattling of the 
Infinite. 



XLII. 

TELEPATHY — THE CIRCULATION 
OF MIND. * 

The study of telepathy is a study of the tides 
and currents of mental forces. A knowledge of 
the laws that govern them would doubtless explain 
all psychic phenomena. This appears to be the 
pass-key v/ith which we could unlock the mysteries 
of hypnotism and all forms of mental healing, 
could understand communication between the seen 
and the unseen, and explain the mysterious influ- 
ences through which human minds dominate each 
other in the complex relations of life. 

May we not fairly claim that the discovery of the 
circulation of mind is the greatest discovery of the 
nineteenth century, as that of the circulation of the 
blood was perhaps the greatest of the seventeenth.? 
We are beginning to understand that not only are 
all men of one blood, but that all are of one mind^ — 
not only that all are of one origin, but also of one 
destiny. The solidarity of the race is one of the 
great lessons of the day. Every human being is a 
nerve centre of humanity, a ganglion of the univer- 
sal body, and sensitive to all the vibrations of the 
human system. 

Is not, then, the study of telepathy the study of 

* Reprinted by permission from The A re7ia. 



229 

those subtle forces which telegraph sensation in the 
individual body between the brain, the organs, and 
the muscular system ? Is it not simply an extended 
study of nerve force, — communication between the 
human sensoria in the larger body? Will not a 
discovery in one field be found to be a discovery in 
the other, completing the analysis of the nervous 
system of the universe? 

Science as yet has made us acquainted only with 
methods, and in all fields of discovery has failed to 
interpret causes. 

We begin our march of progress with coarse 
tools, but after the work of the sappers and miners 
has been done, after the spade has turned up the 
earth and the axe has cut down the forest, after the 
geologist's hammer has broken the rock and the 
miner's pick has uncovered the vein, we complete 
the finer work of analysis in the laboratory, and 
with crucible and electric battery and microscope 
we penetrate further into nature's secrets and learn 
her processes of construction and operation. To- 
day we accomplish, with simpler machinery and 
methods, more work in all mechanical fields than 
was possible half a century ago. This is in 
proportion as we have replaced muscle with 
mind. 

Many such advances are preceded by examples 
of results without machinery, by the simple employ- 
ment of mental forces. We discover the telegraph, 



230 

and flash the cable signals under oceans that divide 
the continents. We apply the electric current to 
the telephone, and the human voice becomes audi- 
ble between cities separated thousands of miles. 
We carry these applications of electricity to a 
higher development, and the range of the human 
vision is extended in the same way as the vocal and 
the auditory power. It is claimed that the latest 
discoveries in electric science make it possible to 
see to immense distances, and to photograph per- 
sons and objects far removed from the camera. 
Yet many of these results have already been ob- 
tained without the employment of any wires or bat- 
teries. 

What, then, is the fundamental law by which 
these seeming phenomena are accomplished.'* Is it 
not harmonious vibration? Two violins are tuned 
to the same key ; one is placed upon a table, and a 
bow is drawn across the strings of the other. The 
one upon the table responds and vibrates to every 
chord awakened by the player. This harmony ap- 
pears to be the first condition of response in all 
mental communication. The subject and the 
operator must be in accord. It is often observed 
that people in close sympathy speak the same 
thought almost simultaneously, but it is not always 
possible to tell in which mind, if in either, the 
thought had its origin. The same inventions and 
ideas are often developed at the same time in differ- 



231 

ent parts of the world. Thought waves appear to 
spread and widen in their vibrations very much as 
those of sound or light. They are also intensified 
in their power by being brought to a focus, as are 
the sun rays by a burning glass. 

What, then, are the best conditions for projecting 
thought.? Experiment in this field has been so 
limited that as yet we have reached very few 
definite conclusions. It appears that the condi- 
tions which have produced the most satisfactory 
results at one time are by no means certain to pro- 
duce the same results at another. From this it fol- 
lows that the problem contains some undiscovered 
factors. 

It appears, however, certain that first there must 
be harmony between the operators, to admit of re- 
ciprocal vibration and produce the best results; 
secondly, that the mind must ho. free from the dis- 
turbance of anxiety, and confident in its power to 
send and to receive thought messages. It must 
also have developed the power of concentration, in 
order to obtain a focus of the mental forces and 
project the thought as sender, or perceive it as re- 
cipient. 

How far the currents of the air, or ether, may 
facilitate or hinder thought projection is perhaps 
an open question; also to what extent electric and 
magnetic forces have a part in the phenomena, and 
whether or not it is desirable to consider the points 



232 

of the compass. We have good reason to believe, 
however, that mental force is the subtlest and most 
powerful of any element yet discovered, — that it 
can dominate all others and act with entire inde- 
pendence of them. 

In an experiment I made some years ago for 
thought transference between Chicago and Boston, 
the following conditions were arranged : The parties 
sat by appointment, making careful allowance for 
the difference in time between the cities. It was 
agreed that each should act alternately for fifteen 
minutes as sender and receiver. In order to assist 
concentration, each had placed before him a photo- 
graph of the other, upon which he fixed his earnest 
attention. With a view to establishing magnetic 
relations, each held in his hand a lock of the other's 
hair. Pencil and paper were provided, and a care- 
ful record was made at both ends of messages sent 
and impressions received. 

The experiment was particularly successful. 
Not only was the substance of the messages re- 
ceived, but with a precision that was remarkable. 
I had dwelt emphatically upon each word of my 
message in Chicago, repeating it many times in a 
low tone. My voice was actually heard in Boston, 
as though I had been calling through a telephone. 
In this case the parties had been in relation of 
operator and subject in a series of hypnotic experi- 
ments lasting many months, and relations of har- 
monious vibration had been well established. 



233 

Other experiments were made at closer range, 
several between Boston and New York, and always 
the substance of the message was received, though 
with varying precision. These experiments were 
by appointment, though without the other con- 
ditions which were used in the Chicago trial. 
Sometimes the hour would find me on the street 
instead of in the quiet of my room. In such 
case the required concentration was naturally 
more difficult, yet I do not recall any instance in 
which the signalling failed. 

Upon several occasions I made the effort, with- 
out warning, to throw my subject into the hypnotic 
sleep when we were separated by distances vary- 
ing from one hundred to three hundred miles. In 
this I invariably succeeded. The influence would 
be immediately felt as a peculiar tingling sensation. 
This would be quickly followed by the hypnotic 
condition, which would sometimes last for several 
hours, — in one case breaking up an entire morn- 
ing's engagements, as I had neglected to throw off 
the influence. In these experiments careful note 
was always made of time, and the effects produced 
were found to be at the exact hour of the trial. 

Such experiments as these have certainly estab- 
lished as a scientific fact the conclusion that thought 
can be projected to great distances. It may be 
definitely recognized by the recipient, or its effects 
produced without the conscious recognition. The 



234 

will of the operator is the projecting force. Time 
and distance do not appear as factors. 

But there is another phase of telepathy which is 
still less understood than this we have considered, 
viz., the unconscious field, in which the thought 
passes from one mind to the other at a distance, 
without intention, and registers itself in a re- 
sulting action. This is illustrated by the following 
experience. A gentleman in Chicago was sitting 
quietly in his room when he felt an inclination to 
yield his arm to automatic writing. A letter was 
thus written addressed to himself and signed with 
the name of a friend in San Francisco. Five days 
later the mail brought to him from San Francisco the 
original letter, of which the writer had unconsciously 
projected the duplicate at the time of writing. 
Here again appears to be the germ of the ''auto- 
telegraph," operating without battery or wire. 

From such experiences we may reasonably infer 
that every individual is at the same time a human 
dynamo, containing magnet and induction coil, re- 
ceiving, generating, and transmitting mind-forces, 
consciously and unconsciously. Doubtless the 
largest field of operation is the realm of the un- 
conscious. 

This brings us to the recognition of the univer- 
sal life through which these thought currents circu- 
late. We perceive that not only is every individual 
a human battery of many cells, but that he is also 



235 

only a single cell of the larger battery v/hich in- 
cludes all humanity, and perhaps an infinitely wider 
range of life of both higher and lower orders, seen 
and unseen. As " the wind bloweth where it list- 
eth" and we cannot tell "whence it cometh nor 
whither it goeth," so is it true of the thought life 
which pervades the race. It is apparently the cir- 
culation of a universal system. It defies all efforts 
to trace it to its source, and at no point can we 
draw the line and say, " This is from incarnate mind 
and this from excarnate ; this is from individual and 
this from associated minds." All life is "inspira- 
tional," and never was book written or line penned 
that could honestly claim the copyright of exclusive 
authorship. 

Here is the great problem of life, — to arrive at 
conscious development and control of these thought 
forces, to purify them of every hurtful element and 
divest them, of all destructiveness, and finally to ap- 
ply them intelligently and with greatly loving pur- 
pose to the symmetrical construction of the temple 
of Divine Humanity. 

Our thoughts should be like flowers in their 
choice varieties and fragrance, or like aeolian harps 
in their soft harmonies. 

Nature is melodious in all of her expressions. If 
we would tune our instruments to the keynote of 
love, a new world of harmony would be speedily 
opened to us. The music of the spheres is more 



236 

than a beautiful metaphor to ears that are not 
deaf. 

Vibration is a grander science than many have 
yet perceived. 

Every human being is said to throw off eight 
ounces, troy, of soHd carbon every day, which is 
about six and a half tons in a life time of seventy- 
five years. This carbon is used continuously by 
the race. Is it not equally reasonable to believe 
that we derive from the Universal Mind a circula- 
tion of thought like that of the blood corpuscles, 
which are formed from the universal atmosphere ? 

Each of us, then, is personally responsible for 
keeping that thought system pure and undefiled. 
In this way only can we be " Children of the Light 
and of the Day." 



XLIII. 
MENTAL DYSPEPSIA. 

Curiously enough, we find many of the errors 
and diseases of the physical plane and of the ecclesi- 
astical schools repeating themselves on progressive 
lines in what is called the "new thought." We do 
not escape them, as we should, in passing from one 
to the other. They change their mode of attack, 
and we encounter them in a new form. The fevers 
and distempers of the body only externalize those 
of the mind. Mental dyspepsia, or indigestion, is 
perhaps one of the most common of these troubles. 

In changing the diet as a result of a change of 
taste, the student too often lacks discrimination, 
and overloads the metaphysical stomach. In such 
a radical transition he does not realize the impor- 
tance of simple habits of thought. A feverish 
appetite is awakened, and a mental greed sets in 
which can bring only an unsettled and unhappy 
state of mind. A process of digestion and assimi- 
lation is quite as important in mental as in physical 
development. In this morbid state the sufferer 
flies to books and teachers, as does the material 
dyspeptic to digestive remedies. Instead of this, 
he should simplify his diet, learn to " stay at home 
with the soul," and trust to the God within. By 



238 

these means he would be able to eradicate his mor- 
bid desire for demonstrations of unripe faculties, 
and learn that the soul, when polarized to truth, 
will invariably find its loadstar. He would reach 
the position really desired in less time, with less 
effort, and without that waste of energy attendant 
upon his usual course. 

Spiritual health is a condition of perfect equa- 
nimity, freed from all uncertainty, anxiety, and 
impatience. It perceives the Eternal Equities. It 
is the normal condition of the soul, here and now. 
It is the "heaven within." 

Those who observe closely are beginning to real- 
ize that the so-called " higher thought " is often 
the old self-righteousness in a new dress, which, if 
selfishly indulged, brings in its train the pharisaism 
of Jesus' time, and the asceticism and bigotry of 
the Middle Ages. 

It might be well at this stage of the proceedings 
to take a few hints from Montaigne, the sceptic, 
as reviewed by Emerson, — not that the sceptical 
view is necessary to metaphysical advancement, but 
that ''moderation in all things" is a safe rule, es- 
pecially on new and untried ground : 

" Shun the weakness of philosophizing beyond your 

depth." 

" Why exaggerate the power of virtue? " 

" These strings wound up too high will snap." 

" Why fancy that you have all the truth in your 

keeping ? " 

" There is much to say on all sides." 



239 

Do not be sure of the arbitrary definitions given 
of "mind and matter," and of the "higher" and 
the "lower" natures; nor draw too fine distinctions 
between the animal and spiritual planes, without 
thoroughly examining both. 

Are you positive that you really know the mean- 
ing of these things ? While posing as masters of 
the occult, can we afford to ignore the higher 
mathematics, the very first principles of logic ? 
Do not in over-enthusiasm be too eager to dis- 
credit intellectual power. 

Be reasonable ; this is the only road to a just 
conclusion. In the effort to develop the spiritual 
nature, remember that man is a triune creature. 
Melody is not produced by harping on one string. 
Our three natures must be symmetrically unfolded 
before we can attune ourselves to spiritual harmo- 
nies. The alphabet is necessary to the expression 
of even the profoundest thought. The multipli- 
cation table is not " common " nor " unclean " to 
the student of differential calculus. Man the ani- 
mal is one with man the intellect and man the 
spirit. All is Divine. There is no lower and no 
higher in God's marvelous kingdom. 

When the balloonist wishes to rise, he throws 
out sand. When he wishes to descend, he lets out 
gas. There is danger of passing into atmospheres 
too highly rarified for human lungs. There is, also, 
danger of too rapid and violent descent. Both de- 
mand judgment and skill in the navigator. 



240 



In our metaphysical ballooning these dangers 
frequently appear. Let us not move into the 
clouds too rapidly, and imagine that we have no 
longer need of the earth ballast ; rather let us keep 
one hand upon the valve-rope, letting out the gas 
occasionally to descend to earth levels, and touch 
elbows with our friends and fellow-mortals who may 
need our help in their struggles upward, as we cer- 
tainly need theirs. 

Our grandest philosophies are only pigmies of 
thought, and generations of spiritual evolution will 
be necessary to their full development before we 
can safely soar away from the planet on which 
we are now obtaining an elementary training. 

Meanwhile, let us thank God for *' the life that 
now is," with its lusty joys, as well as for ''that 
which is to come," neither belittling the one nor 
ignoring the other ; enjoying the promise of both, 
while remembering Paul's assurance that "godli- 
ness is profitable unto all things." 



XLIV. 

RESTLESS ASPIRATION. 

" In quietness and confidence shall be thy strength." 
" Thy strength is to sit still." 
"Be still and know." 

There is a curious restlessness frequently to be 
observed among students in the science of thought. 
It is displayed in a greed for books and lectures 
which is never satisfied. This is a consequence of 
working upon the old lines of action and seeking 
truth in the externals. It is an expectation of good 
from others, a looking for something outside of 
one's self, a demand for a "revelation." These 
eager ones have developed an abnormal appetite 
and are suffering from a metaphysical fever. This 
is a purely intellectual disease. It results from a 
mixed diet. If the food were analyzed it would in- 
clude a curious combination of the occult, spiritual- 
istic, theosophical, and religious elements indiscrim- 
inately combined, — a sort of metaphysical hash, 
which has resulted in a mental dyspepsia. The 
sufferers have stumbled at the simplicity of truth. 
They have mistaken theories for principles. The 
principles of life are few. Though *'he who runs 
may read," they are best learned in quiet medita- 
tion. 



242 

Most men distress themselves with interminable 
speculations and complicated mathematics. They 
have not found the factors for the solution of life's 
problems. They mistake the problems. We are 
not yet ready for the higher mathematics ; we are 
still studying the tables. We are too intense and 
anxious. It is not necessary to weigh and meas- 
ure spiritual food. It is not desirable to ex- 
amine our own pulse and temperature, and get 
upon the scales to ascertain if we are gaining in 
spiritual condition and avoirdupois. We regulate 
our watches by a gentle touch of a single lever 
that governs the vibrations of the hairspring. 
We do not waste our time by continually push- 
ing about the hands upon the dial. The regu- 
lator is concealed within the case. The works 
that move the hands are seldom seen, but in them 
is all the power concentrated. It is our thoughts 
that require our care, rather than our actions. 
We regulate our thoughts by forgeting ourselves 
and giving no heed to appetite or diet. We breathe 
truth as we breathe the atmosphere, — by simply 
letting good work in and through us without 
effort. '' Kill out the hunger for growth." It is 
a feverish longing which enervates and hinders. 
It is not a condition of spiritual progress. We 
must learn to spell "Peace" in capital letters 
and etch it in every cell of brain and heart, in 
every corpuscle of blood that flows through them. 



243 

The *' still, small voice" is never heard when our 
vibrations are disturbed by worriment. We are like 
captive balloons. It is our nature to rise to higher 
levels. The ground anchors that hold us are 
our troubled thoughts. 

" Rivers to the ocean run, 

Nor stay in all their course ; 
Fire ascending seeks the sun, 
Each speeds it to its source." 

If we will only let go of ourselves we will 
easily come into the harmonies of being. It 
is because of egotism that we are "ever learn- 
ing and never able to come to a knowledge 
of the truth." It takes us such a long time to 
discover that the ocean of truth is buoyant and 
we cannot sink in it. How we bob around with 
our old-fashioned life-preservers instead of boldly 
striking out as swimmers! Our tenacity of fear 
and our self-consciousness are truly wonderful. 
Our artificial aids are our worst impediments. The 
water is one of our native elements. We have in 
ourselves all the buoyancy we need. All we lack 
is boldness to move forward. Spiritual develop- 
ment brings us into more and more direct relations 
with the all-pervading good. Is not one step in a 
journey as good as another if all lead toward our 
goal.-* Can any step lead us away from good if 
good is everywhere.-* Does not all experience in- 



244 

crease our realization and promote spiritual con- 
sciousness in the end? Action, reaction, and adjust- 
ment are the operation of the law of progress. 
When we have adjusted our lives to right purposes 
every experience will be transmuted into wisdom. 
We will learn something from every book that 
is opened to us in our daily life. 

There are two distinct methods of obtaining re- 
sults. One is through the strong exercise of per- 
sonal will, and one is found in the true philosophy 
of ''letting go." Willing and letting. The purely 
human impulse is to will and act. A higher spirit- 
ual development discloses to us that the tides and 
currents of human life move with an irresistible 
power and always in the right direction. To gain 
the best results we have only to put ourselves fear- 
lessly in the stream and move in harmony with 
spiritual law. We can never obstruct, but we may 
be, through our own act, in such uncomfortable re- 
lations to these tides and currents that we suffer 
discord in ourselves. The personal will of itself 
can change appearances. It never reaches real re- 
sults. The spiritual will is omnipotent. We 
fail to recognize its power. Many are even ig- 
norant of its existence. No true work can 
ever be accomplished until purposed and directed 
by the spiritual will. Such work can never fail. 
Success is its inevitable result. We need not 
spend our time in looking for it. Its demon- 



245 

stration will be prompt and thorough when we have 
made it possible through harmony of thought. 
The spiritual will is the Divine. We need only 
allow its powerful currents to flow through us. 
This is "letting go." Obstinacy is diseased will. It 
does not show strength of character. It is the ex- 
pression of a weak and sullen nature. True deter- 
mination is like finely tempered steel, which is 
extremely flexible because of its great tensile 
strength. If it were brittle it would be at the same 
time rigid. 

When one is conscious of a power he is al- 
ways confident in its possession. He does not 
think frequent assertion or special demonstration 
necessary. He is not troubled at the thought of 
scepticism in others. His feeling of serenity can- 
not be disturbed. The highest character yields 
easily and pleasantly to the preferences of others 
in non-essential things, for the simple reason 
that it knows its own resources are inexhaustible. 
Its pleasure lies in giving satisfaction and conferring 
benefits. It does not act from a weak motive to 
please, but as the natural expression of its own rich 
nature which has outgrown the petty thoughts of 
self. It yields abundantly because its growth is 
opulent and its vigor tireless. It has no care- 
ful, anxious thought for others any more than for 
itself. It is utterly indifferent to another's opinion 
where action involves a principle. It trusts its own 



246 

motive and acts without question of results. The 
mercenary spirit shows itself as truly in the greed 
for spiritual and intellectual power as in the greed 
for wealth or fame. So long as it is power that we 
seek our aim is selfish and deplorable. Aspiration 
is no better than ambition if it is rooted in selfish 
desire. Simple and true Being is a condition of 
spiritual equipoise which recognizes that there is no 
"higher" or ''lower" in infinite space nor in the 
kingdom of Good. Nothing to be ''lost" or 
"gained." No "goal" to be attained, no "conflict " 
to be won, no "hope" nor "fear." Nothing that 
relates to the emotions. Only a life to be lived. 
It is one of our pet delusions that we have "much 
to contend with." There is nothing to "contend" 
with in a true life. " But I say unto you that ye resist 
not evil " is more than a moral injunction. It sug- 
gests a truth that is both scientific and philosophi- 
cal. We " fight " with shadows. Truth is never 
embodied in a "cause" demanding our defence. 
It does not need us as its "champions," either in 
society or the domestic circle. We are not to con- 
sider that we are retained as its especial advocates. 
All men can see the sun. It is of no consequence 
to any other than ourselves if we choose to hide 
in the shadows. Truth needs no torch-bearers. 
It scorns our puny telescopes, searching for the 
spots in the sun. Truth is opulent. It has an un- 
limited wardrobe. We need not insist that it 



247 

dress always in the colors of our choice. Some 
would clothe it in black, to accord with their own 
sombre thoughts ; some in gray, and some in all 
the vivid colors of a joyful mind. But Truth itself, 
when fully seen, is clad in the white robes of 
the perfect light, combining all colors in radiant 
harmony. Truth has many names. It is best 
known as ''Love." 

Many of us are troubled by a missionary spirit 
which keeps us in perpetual anxiety for the 
''cause" of the new thought, or in an eager de- 
sire that it should be recognized by certain indi- 
viduals who seem to us to greatly need it. We 
should have no such anxious care. When Truth 
offers us the privilege of its expression and employs 
us among its many voices, we can never fail to 
know the hour. We will respond, like Samuel, 
"Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." Mean- 
while, let us rid ourselves of " missionary zeal." It 
is a most pernicious influence. It has no proper 
place in an enlightened spirit. Let us slow down 
our vibrations and test our thought cells and secre- 
tions under the microscope when we begin to think 
we "have a mission," or have received the visits of 
spiritual celebrities. All highly developed spirits, 
in the form or out of it, have grown to be imper- 
sonal and lost all thought of fame. The desire to 
be known is certain evidence of an unregenerate 
mind. There is much missionary zeal that is only 



248 

inflamed ambition for notoriety. We are misled 
by the thought of "fame." We imagine special 
power and grandeur in the personality, and do 
obeisance to it 'in our hero worship, as though it 
were some great thing in itself. When we look 
at the glow of the incandescent lamp we remem- 
ber the powerful engines and dynamos from which 
the electric current is produced. We remember 
that this same current illumines countless other 
lamps. It flows always in the direction of the 
least resistance. The lamp is only one small 
manifestation of an inexhaustible power. Its par- 
ticular film must be free from obstruction, and 
a good conductor, else it will not shine at all and 
illuminate its own little radius. If the electric 
current is too strong, it burns out its wires and 
does not hold. We must not forget to keep our 
circuits open. If we suffer, we may be sure that 
something is wrong in our spiritual circulation. 
We must pass the current on. Yet it is also true 
in electricity that the most brilliant light is often 
at the point of obstruction. In our experiences of 
trouble we manifest the character of the light that 
is in us. 

It is not of so much importance as we are apt to 
think just what we do or fail to do, — whether we 
eat much or little, dress in gay or sober raiment, 
read or meditate, are active or inactive. The vital 
matter is the character of our thought life and the 



249 

purity of our purpose. If these are true, all circum- 
stances and environments will quickly respond and 
adjust themselves harmoniously. We need not 
fear to aim at the highest good for ourselves and 
others ; but we must be confident of its attainment, 
without reserve or limitation. We are too ardent 
and intense, and, in consequence, near-sighted. The 
eagle's eye is telescopic ; he sights his food when 
flying high. If we do not obstruct our spiritual 
vision through our petty desires, and tempers, and 
fears, there is no instant of life when our percep- 
tions will be dim. We must be as content in wait- 
ing as in action, as well satisfied in one place as 
another. We must learn to regard all persons, 
places, and occupations with the same tranquillity. 
This is more than "patient endurance," more than 
"toleration;" it is that confident love which brings 
the peace that showeth tmderstanding. Only when 
we have reached this point are we polarized to 
truth, and beyond all disturbance from without. 
We are then for the first time truly alive, in full 
vigor and with a boundless horizon. 

One of our severest lessons is to learn to wait, 
we have been so hypnotized by the popular thought 
of doing. And so we fuss and fume, and build 
card houses that are forever tumbling about our 
ears, and pride ourselves on our " activities," 
without knowing that all real activity is in mind. 
When we remember the tireless energy of the 



250 

universal life of which we are a part, we know 
that it can never fail us. We need not carry the 
world on our shoulders. If we have a true under- 
standing of life, we are never wearied. Life and 
happiness are possible under all conceivable con- 
ditions. Good is infinite energy, and in good we 
live. It is also infinite repose. In good there 
is no ''great" and no "small." No work is 
''insignificant or "splendid." No day or event 
is of greater or less "importance" than another. 
We cease to compare, for all is life, and all is 
good. In spiritual chemistry "being" is the true 
primate; "doing" is its manifestation. The first 
impulse of newly awakened spiritual life is often 
(following the old lines of thought) to obtain 
and expend money for "good work." Of this 
we may be certain, God is opulence. Good work 
can never be really obstructed or delayed by lack 
of material means. We must not be deceived 
by appearances. Spiritual work requires spiritual 
tools. When the soil is ready flowers grow. The 
finest of flowers bloom in the sandiest of deserts 
as well as in the hothouses. God is the one gar- 
dener. Our responsibility lies chiefly in the culti- 
vation of our own fields and orchards. If we are 
wise and faithful in this, the harvest will feed and 
delight the world. We will no longer be "sorry" 
for ourselves or others when we have learned that 
at every moment of existence every human being 



251 

is experiencing exactly that which his development 
requires. The experience passes just as soon as 
the lesson is learned. This has been curiously 
illustrated in our national life. The tide of civil 
war rolled back from the time that we recognized 
the moral issue involved in the struggle and pro- 
claimed emancipation of the slave. If '' being " in 
us is symmetrical, we will never be distressed about 
the lack of opportunities in doing. We will never 
falter. 

" Thou hast the truth, 

Thou hast the life within thee, — 
It shall guide aright. 
Trust then thy promptings day by day 
And safely they shall lead the way." 



252 



We are often told that human life is limited by- 
its pre-natal conditions. 

This is doubtless true in a sense, for we are the 
consequence of previous causes. But we are begin- 
ning to understand that the causes were in our- 
selves rather than our ancestors. 

We are now moulding the pre-natal conditions of 
what we term ''the next life." 

Certainly these are within our control. When 
we open our eyes in the subjective realms to the 
discomforts we have entailed upon ourselves, shall 
we still be pleading pre-natal conditions in excuse ^ 

We always see a mountain peak long before we 
reach it. 

On a clear day it seems much nearer to us than 
it really is. 

It is often so with our realization of truth. We 
perceive it in the distance, and the journey toward 
it is an experience of education. But we are apt 
to crawl painfully over the rough ground and for- 
get that we have wings as well as feet. 



XLV. 
GO FORWARD. 

Seek the way by retreating within. Seek the way by 

advancing boldly without. — Light on the Path. 

Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. 

Wisely improve the present, it is thine. 

Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with 
a manly heart. — Long fellow'' s '•'■Hyperiojt.'''' 
No sea more foreign rolls than breaks each morn 
Across our thresholds when the day is born, 
We sail at sunrise daily "outward bound." 

— Helen Hunt Jackson. 

Why should we be discouraged by the past } 

Every day is a new incarnation. It places us in 
different relations to all persons and events. 

The planet on which we live has moved steadily 
while we slept. 

It has wholly changed its orbital point and its 
relation to the planisphere. 

Every life meanwhile has built for itself new 
cells. It has thrown off something of the old ac- 
cretions. 

At the end of a few months the body of today 
has altogether vanished. Our motives and opinions 
have changed, our purposes are greatly altered. 

Nothing but our individuality remains. 



254 

We need not cling so fearfully to the inheritance 
of the past. 

We are not compelled to mortgage the present 
to redeem it. 

We begin anew. We live in today. 

Our opportunities were never better than they 
are. We will not weary ourselves with regrets. 
We will make with every fresh day as it dawns a 
new declaration of independence. 

We need not live always at the bottom of the 
mine. 

The mineralogist, geologist, and miner, for pur- 
poses of their own, put on coarse suits of clothes, 
fix candles in their caps, descend in a cage to the 
foot of the shaft and explore the underground 
levels. 

When they return to the surface and sunlight, 
it will be with fresh material, — minerals for the 
laboratory work or college museum, ore for smelt- 
ing and coining. 

They have not degraded themselves by the ex- 
plorations underground. 

They were not impatient to return. 

They simply valued their opportunity and im- 
proved it to the utmost. 

Have we not here suggestion of our proper atti- 
tude as spirits that have clothed themselves with 
matter in the temporary incarnation of an earthly 
life.? 



255 

The old thought looks upon heaven as a great 
having, rather than a great doing or being, for the 
thought of the world has been always to get. 

We are beginning to learn that the secret of the 
highest happiness is to give. 

Circulation is the law of life. Stagnation is 
death. According as we give we have, in thought 
or substance. According as we hoard we fail to 
possess and are possessed. 

We cannot realize our riches until we have got 
beyond a personal desire for them as a selfish 
necessity. 

Whenever there is a real want we may be sure 
that the supply is not far away. 

The recognition of the want brings us within 
view of the supply. 

Confidence in the operation of the law insures 
its realization. 

Why should we grieve over the error and dark- 
ness of human lives.-* 

Is not God in the mud as much as in the lily.-* 
Do we sorrow because some seeds have to be 
buried under ground and work their way up into 
the sunshine before they can flower, while others 
lie upon the surface and germinate in the light ? 

The tree or plant that grows the tallest and lasts 
longest is the one that strikes its roots down deep- 
est and draws its life as much from the earth below 



256 

as from the heavens above. The glory of good is 
just as manifest in the gutters as in the high places 
of the land. 

We need not think of animal and divine con- 
ditions as separate things. 

The unity of good is the most apparent truth in life. 

When we have learned the first page of the 
primer we begin to perceive this and it becomes 
more manifest every day. 

All potentialities are in ourselves, just the same 
as they are in the acorn and unfolded in the oak. 

All winds and weathers are favorable to the de- 
velopment of the sturdy, well-rooted tree. Even 
the hurricane which strips it of its leaves and 
branches quickens all its vital powers, challenging 
it to put forth greater strength. 

If it is cut down in part the result is a sturdier 
trunk and a more compact and symmetrical growth 
thereafter. 

Even if it is toppled over by the storm its acorns 
are scattered and become the seeds of the forest. 

In its ruin it goes back to the soil, from which 
spring other trees. 

No life can be lost ; conservation of forces is the 
law of nature. 

Can we imagine a mechanic who would build a 
beautiful and intricate machine without a definite 
plan for its usefulness and provision for keeping it 
in operation? 



257 

Is it not equally unreasonable to believe in a 
supreme mind equal to the production of a mortal 
life that could neglect all provision for its necessi- 
ties and leave it to fail in its intended purpose 
through the poverty of its resources ? 

There are no failures in the kingdom of good. 

Our highest development comes often through 
our deepest disappointments. 

Disappointment is the discovery of obstructions 
to ways we should not travel, — or the removal 
from our paths of things we ought not to have. 

If we are truly balanced our needle will always 
find the north, but we must give it time to settle. 
We need not fear we shall be left in doubt. The 
right way will surely open though we may try a 
hundred doors meanwhile and find them locked. 
Nothing can close against us the door we should 
pass through. 

We cannot miss our gates of opportunity. We 
must look for them first in our mental conditions. 

The lowest step of the ladder is just as useful 
and necessary as the highest. In the evolution of 
life we find no bottom and no top stair, — only an 
eternal progress of realization, in which there can 
be no "better days" and no "unfortunate events." 

All days and all events are built into the sym- 
metrical structure of our lives. 

The smallest stone in the mosaic picture is as 
necessary as the largest to the finished work, 
though it add but a single point of color. 



258 

It has its place, and its significance, which can- 
not be dispensed with without marring the mosaic 
as a work of art. 

There is no individual, no community or nation, 
no period of time, no work of man that is wholly 
good or wholly bad. 

The warp and the woof of life are many tinted. 
Why should we be so quick to commend or con- 
demn because our taste in color is gratified or of- 
fended ? 

Praise and blame are alike undesirable to one 
who knows that no true judgment can be ever 
reached except when we judge ourselves. 

Life is an experience of ripening. The green 
fruit has but small resemblance to that which is 
matured. Our judgments of each other are neces- 
sarily imperfect as our experience and knowledge 
of any human life is very limited. As our horizon 
widens we become more charitable and patient ; we 
learn to understand the beauty of that Hindoo 
proverb, "To know all is to forgive all." 

The greatest service one can render another is 
to believe in him. 

Let us persistently refuse to take each other 
seriously when we express anything but our best; 
to think meanly of another tends to lower his tone 
and relax his hold upon himself. 

It is a great loss to lose the good opinion and 



259 

confidence of one's fellows. It is a far greater loss 
to forfeit even for a moment one's right to think 
well of himself. But even this is not irreparable. 
Though all the rigging of our ship of life has gone 
by the board and nothing but the hull remains to 
us, we may yet come safely into port and with a 
new outfitting sail on more prosperous voyages. 

Infidelity to self is infidelity to God. 

It is through defeat that we are schooled to 
victory. 

Broken bones when well knitted are strongest at 
the points of fracture. 

In spite of all our seeming failures and the bitter 
disappointments of our purposes, we will none of 
us find at the last that our life was altogether fruit- 
less ; many things of which we thought but little will 
bring to us the greatest satisfaction; many friends 
whom we esteemed most lightly will doubtless 
stand revealed as of the noblest stature. 

He who has learned a single letter of the alpha- 
bet has not entirely wasted his opportunities; he 
may indeed have neglected his spelling and possibly 
require many mortal lives before he learns to read 
in the Book of Truth. 

We must get done with watching for fruit ; it is 
not the aim and end of our existence, but only a 
single point in the infinite circle. 

Let us allow a sentient life to the tree and follow 



26o 



the course of its growth from the seed to fruition, 
through the root life, the trunk, the branch, the 
leaf, bud, blossom, and fruit. The fruit embodies 
future growth, and is perfected that it may fall to 
the ground and deposit the seed for further evolu- 
tion. At what point can we claim any higher 
satisfaction for the tree over any other point of its 
development ? Cannot we see that at every moment 
it fulfils its law of being? It is doubtless as well 
satisfied in striking its roots down as in spreading 
its branches out. It must have just as much 
pleasure in its leaves as in its fruit, — all these are 
the varied expressions of its life, which never dies 
but moves in an eternal round of growth, decay, 
and resurrection. 

Let us value the passing hour and concentrate 
on it all our forces. 

Anticipation and regret will only scatter them. 

We can never reach the point of present realiza- 
tion till we have broken both these fetters. 

Realization comes through the concentration of 
the spiritual power that has been wasted on our 
'* feelings." 

When we focus sunshine through a concave lens, 
we can fire a forest or a city. 

" Speak to the children of Israel, that they go 
forward." 

Let us move on and step out boldly, though it be 
into the night and we can scarcely see the way. 



26l 



The path will open as we progress, like the trail 
through the forest or the alpine pass, which dis- 
closes but a few rods of its length from any single 
point of view. 

Press on ! If necessary we will find even the 
pillar of cloud and fire to mark our journey through 
the wilderness. 

A higher intelligence than the mortal sees the 
road before us. We do not have to strive for 
good, but only to go forward and possess it. Good 
awaits us at every step. 

Nothing but fear can blind us. 

There are guides and wayside inns along the 
road. We will find food, clothes, and friends at 
every stage of the journey, and as old Rutherford 
so quaintly says: 

" However matters go, the worst will be a tired 
traveler and a joyful and sweet welcome home." 



1/3 



